Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul
by Krystal Lily Potter
Summary: Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure, Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four horcruxes 2007
1. Something Different

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter One:_** Something Different  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure, Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the six items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least dangerous ones of all that he must face. Can he bring back the light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes such as death (no this story does not contain any sex so if people are looking for that then I'm sorry to disappoint you)

* * *

The floorboards groaned under his feet as he slowly, and carefully walked across the decaying floor. His dark eyes continued to gaze a head of him, locked onto his unseen goal.

Finally he reached his destination. With a careful shove he pushed the old door open and found himself in a dark, dusty room.

Everything in the room was covered by a thick layer of grime and mold. It was very obvious that no one had been in this house for years, and he was the only living thing that would be entering it anytime soon.

"Unless old man Dumbledore realizes what's going on," the young man muttered to himself, "it wouldn't surprise me if he's still constantly watching me."

As he started searching the room for the specific item he was looking for his thoughts went back to the old man he had referred to. Albus Dumbledore had been his Transfiguration teacher back when he attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and was the only teacher who hadn't worshiped the ground he walked on.

To all the other teachers, including the Headmaster, he was their golden boy: brilliant, good looking, well liked and well behaved. Yes, Tom Riddle had had it all in school, and it was quite unwilling to let it all go when he had graduated.

Once graduation had come around he had asked Headmaster Dippet to allow him to stay at the school to teach, but the Headmaster had reluctantly declined his request, because he was too young. Tom intended on taking the old man up on his proposition one of these days.

Of course, there was also the fact that Dippet had been getting on in his years, and if Tom wanted the job of Defense Against the Dark Arts he knew he would have to return to the school soon. There was no doubt in his mind whom the next Headmaster would be: Albus Dumbledore. He was not only the Head of the Gryffindor house; he was the Deputy Headmaster of the school as well.

A dark look appeared on Riddle's face, and his anger boiled as he continued thinking about Dumbledore. How he despised that man…

Suddenly he stopped moving and his eyes rested on the item in front of him. It was hidden behind layers of grimy items, but because of its luster it was quite visible when concentrated on. Gold in color with a small seal embroidered in it, and not a single spec of dust on it (even though it had been in that exact same spot for years), it was exactly what Tom Riddle had been looking for.

With a look of greed, he slowly reached forward and took the item into his hand, when a flash of quick and furious pain flew through his body. With an agonizing yell he dropped the item to the ground and it rolled off to the side of the room. It rolled until the seal on it was clearly seen: an eagle with a light outline of bronze and blue…

* * *

A loud scream was heard and he shot up into a sitting position. He squinted at the figure above him and, in his tired confusion, said, "What the hell Hermione?"

The young woman he was referring to was Hermione Granger. She was sitting on the bed above him, staring out the window with a look of horror plastered over her pretty face.

"Hermione?" he asked again and frowned. Reaching onto the desk just above his head he put his glasses on his nose and peered at his friend. Now that his mind was calm and his dream was well separated from reality he was able to see his friend's shaken expression with ease.

"I'm sorry," she said after a moment, her eyes turning from the small window to him, "I didn't mean to wake you."

"No it's ok, you didn't scream too loud," he said reassuringly. He grinned at the look of disbelief that she displayed next and made a quick motion to the other figure laying on the ground in a pale green sleeping bag, "Hey you didn't wake Ron up so that's a bonus."

She actually snorted and said, "Honestly Harry, you know better than I do that Ronald could sleep through a heard of stampeding hippogriffs.

Harry's grin widened and he said, "Probably." To prove her point his gave his friend a light kick in the head. Ron Weasley let out a loud snort before muttering, "No thanks mom, I think I'll have tea instead" before going silent again.

Hermione giggled quietly and it took nearly all of Harry's will power to stop him from laughing. After the two settled down she began peering at Harry with her knowing brown eyes.

He sighed and said, "You want to know what I woke up."

"Well if it wasn't me screaming then it must have been something else," she insisted.

"I'll tell you only if you tell me why you screamed. If it was Dudley's snoring I can always go stick a pair of socks in his mouth."

She laughed quietly again before saying, "No it was…a dream…"

"What was it about?" Harry questioned.

She smiled slightly before saying, "It was my fears Harry. I don't have significant dreams like you do. Mine are purely fiction created by my mind. I saw you…Ron…my parents…all of you…"

Tears were welding up in her eyes and Harry let out a small sigh. He leaned back against the desk and patted her leg before saying, "You don't have to explain, I understand."

She seemed relieved that she didn't need to explain her dream anymore. The vision had been terrible enough the first time. Now though, the images of her slaughtered friends and family were pushed out of her mind and replaced with the curiosity that made her famous in Hogwarts.

"What did you dream about?" she asked.

"How do you know I had a dream?" Harry shot back.

Hermione smiled slightly before saying, "You, Harry James Potter, can not lie to me and you know it. I've been one of your best friends for six years now and I know that when you wake up, startled, it means you've had a dream…a significant one…"

"I suppose you do know me better than to believe my lies. Well…I don't really know where I was, but it was a broken down mansion that looked like no one had lived there for centuries. I was watching everything…I watched Riddle search for something, and he found it too," Harry explained, trying to concentrate on the details of his dream.

"Riddle? Do you think he was checking on one of his horcruxes?" she asked.

"No, he was young, maybe 23 or 24. I think…well I know he found what he was looking for. I can't remember what it was, but I do remember the insignia on it…it was Ravenclaw's crest," he said thoughtfully.

Hermione automatically went into her deep thinking mode. Her brow furrowed and she said, "So, we know that there was Riddle's diary, The Gaunt Ring, Slytherin's Locket, Hufflepuff's Chalice, something of Ravenclaw's, possibly Voldemort's snake and—"

"-Voldemort himself," Harry interrupted, "but my dream left no clues as to _where_ Ravenclaw's item is."

"We'll figure it out Harry, we always do," Hermione encouraged him.

Ron grunted in his sleep and said, "Full steam ahead!"

"See," she said with a small smile as she sat cross-legged, "Ron agrees with me too."

Harry shook his head at her and said, "We should get some sleep, tomorrow's going to be another hectic, Dursley filled day."

"No doubt," she agreed with a small sigh.

* * *

Petunia Dursley had known for years, for almost sixteen years to be exact, that her peaceful, _normal_ life that she so greatly appreciated would one day come to an end. The day she had realized that was the day she had taken her young nephew into her home.

Harry Potter, her nephew, was not a normal boy; oh no, that would have been too kind of her sister to send her a normal child. Her nephew went to a boarding school up in Scotland and only returned in the summer for about a month because of some kind of ancient magic that had to do with the fact that she had the same blood as her dear little sister. Her nephew, Harry Potter, was a wizard.

When Petunia had first seen the child she had known right away who it was. She had screamed from shock and woke the poor sole up with the shattering of a milk jar, but she had felt an overwhelming sense of...something when she had first seen him lying on her doorstep.

Petunia stopped combing out her blond hair and stared at the mirror in front of her for a moment. What was it she had felt when she had first seen Harry? Disgust? Loathing? Foreboding? No, she realized she had felt none of that; instead she had felt a massive urge to protect the small child. She had never really hated him to the extent that she let on, but her husband and son's welfare came first, and to them that meant being a nasty witch to the boy.

She chuckled softly at the irony of her thoughts; a nasty witch was exactly what she thought her sister to be. In reality she had been jealous of her sister all her life. Her mother had told her that Petunia was an angel with blond hair and blue eyes, but that didn't stop her from being jealous every time she peered at her younger sister. Lily had always had dark red hair and emerald green eyes, giving her a more majestic look than anything else. At first that was all Petunia had been jealous about, but when Lily got her Hogwarts letter she had been green with envy that her sister could perform magic and she couldn't. Perhaps that was why she loathed magic so much.

As she got up to go down stairs her thoughts turned to Harry once again. She knew that even in the wizarding world he wasn't normal, and that there was something terrible in that world that only he could face. It broke her heart that her nephew had to face such horrible trials; he never did get the chance to be a normal child, even though Vernon said that was what they were making him as he grew. Petunia had agreed at the time, but now that she looked back she realized that they had never let Harry be a normal child, and, just maybe, if they had been kinder to him he would have been the normal child they desperately wanted him to be.

No, Petunia corrected her thoughts; he was too much like both his parents. He looked like James but his eyes were strictly Lily's; his personality on the other hand was what Petunia remembered from her sister mostly: kind, compassionate, loyal to friends, but with a flaming temper. Petunia had only met James a hand full of times and never had any liking for him (neither had her father for some apparent reason) but she could see some of him in the way Harry acted as well, it just wasn't as pronounced as Lily's attributes were.

When Harry had turned up early this summer, even before Dudley had come home, he had been with two people. A tall, uneasy looking boy with flaming red hair and bright blue eyes (he was one of the ones that had blown up her fireplace a few year prior, Petunia had noted) and the other was a petite girl with curly brown hair and brown eyes that had stared at her with great distaste. Harry had simply said that he had to stay until his birthday, but since the protection would be wearing off on his seventeenth birthday he would leave that day and never return. He had added that his friends would be staying with him, whether the Dursleys liked it or not. He had added, as a side note when Vernon had been about to argue, that both his friends were already of age in the wizard world and both could legally do magic as they pleased; that had quickly put any thoughts of arguing with Harry strictly out of Vernon's mind.

They weren't such a hassle anyways, Petunia thought, she had rarely noticed the three extra people in the house. For the most part they stayed outside away from the house or locked away in Harry's small room.

Curiosity got the best of Petunia Dursley as she quietly approached her nephew's room. She carefully peaked her head in and saw the red head lying in a sleeping bag on the floor and the girl on the bed, both sleeping, her quietly, him…not so much.

The sleeping bag between the bed and the other boy was empty, and now that Petunia paid attention she could smell breakfast being cooked downstairs. She wasn't really surprised; he always got up early to make breakfast this summer so that there would be enough for he and his friends to eat as well as the Dursleys. Petunia did appreciate him doing that, but she would never tell.

Quietly closing the door and making her way downstairs she did indeed find Harry in the kitchen making breakfast. She observed him for a moment before noting that at least she had taught him how to cook, it was one life skill that he would thank her for later on when he was trying to impress some girl with a nice homemade meal.

* * *

Harry looked up as his aunt as she entered the room. He was a little surprised, normally she would be up about a half an hour after he was done with breakfast, but it didn't really matter to him.

There was a silence in the room as she stood there, observing him, and to be frank it made him uncomfortable.

"Your birthday is in two weeks, is it not? On Thursday I do believe…" she said to him suddenly.

The question startled Harry. Aside from the time she had told him when his birthday was she had never given him even the impression that she knew when his birthday was, but she hit the target right in the center; Thursday, July 31, 1997 would be his seventeenth birthday.

"Yes," he said slowly, "then I'll be out of your hair forever, don't worry."

A small smile appeared on Petunia's face and she said, "You know, that's exactly what your mother said to me the day before _her_ seventeenth birthday."

Harry looked over at Petunia as he started putting the fried bacon on a plate. Curiosity was evident on his face as he asked, "she did?"

"Oh yes, she was quite the spitfire, Lily was. I know most people who knew your parents, when they first look at you, expect you to be a clone of James with green eyes, but I raised you, whether I did it well is not the question (she added when seeing the protest on his face), even you can't deny that I did raise you. I see very little of James Potter in you, in fact I see more of my sister than anything else."

A small smile appeared on Harry's face as he finished with the eggs and asked, "What was my mother like?"

"I'm sorry?"

Harry shrugged and said, "Well you're in a good mood so I thought I'd try. See I met many of dad's old friends and I know what he was like in their eyes (his thoughts flickered back to the sadistic teenager he had seen humiliating Snape in the man's memory) but I don't really know about my mother."

Petunia stared at him thoughtfully as he continued to make enough food for his friends as well as the living garbage disposal (as Ron took to calling Dudley). Harry assumed her silence meant that she wasn't going to tell him anything and was startled when she suddenly said, "You have her temper."

A small grin appeared on his face and he said slowly, "Her temper?"

"Yes, you have much of her personality. When she was younger she was shy, much like you were, but as she grew up Hogwarts made her into a person who was willing to take on the rest of the world on her own. She had three good friends that I met: Alyssa Bones, Sarah Prewett and…" Petunia trailed off, a slightly disturbed look on her face.

"Bones, they were a prominent pureblood family in the wizarding world. The only one that is left of that family is Susan Bones," Harry said slowly, "And Prewett was Mrs. Weasley's maiden name."

"I think Lily mentioned that Alyssa was an aunt, the girl would be only a few months older then you," Petunia said reluctantly, "Lily also told me that Sarah was constantly having family issues, especially with her older sister, who was married to a man named Arthur Weasley."

"Wait, you're telling me that you and mom still spoke to each other after she graduated?"

"Yes, we kept in touch," Petunia said, "originally we intended on keeping as far away from each other as we could but when our older sister, Vera, died we were reunited at her funeral."

Harry slowly took in the information that he had another aunt, but he didn't question anything about her yet. There was still one thing that was bugging him, "You said that she had three close friends. Who was the third?"

"Well you see Harry…you had two aunts that I've never told you about. Unfortunately both died at a young age at the hands of that evil man in your world. The first was my sister Vera, the second was your mother's friend and your father's twin sister: Karmen Potter. She was nothing like her twin…" Petunia said.

Harry digested the information as he turned off the stove and went to work cleaning the dishes he had used. It was a lot for him to take in, but it was not all that information that bothered him the most.

"Why are you being so…unPetuniaish to me?" he asked out of the blue.

She blinked and hid the grin that appeared on her face as she said, "I thought you ought to know about your aunts before you left…"

* * *

Harry and Hermione sat side by side on his bed, both with amused looks on their faces. Ron was clueless to their stares as he wolfed down his breakfast.

"This is great, you're aunt does make good food mate," Ron said to Harry between mouthfuls.

Harry chuckled and said, "I bet she does." He didn't mention that he was the one who had cooked the food.

Hermione had reached down and pulled out one of her magical daily planners. She gazed at the calendar in it and said, "Nine more days before we can leave."

"You guys don't have to stay," Harry said right away.

"You've been saying that ever since we got here a month ago Harry," Hermione said to him.

"Yeah and we're still here," Ron added.

Harry smiled slightly at them then said, "Ron, you might was to duck."

Ron looked around quickly and ended up getting a face full of old owl, "Bloody hell! Errol?"

Hermione took the old owl into her arms, carefully undid the letter attached to his leg and set him beside Hedwig in her cage. Hedwig hooted and moved so the old owl could get a drink. Most of the time Harry's snowy owl was rather cold to any other animals but she seemed to understand that this bird had been through a lot.

"It's a letter from mom I bet," Ron said and reached out to take it but Hermione swatted his hand away.

She stared at Ron for a second before passing the letter to a blank looking Harry and said, "It's addressed to H.J.P."

Harry opened the letter and looked through it once. He winced slightly as he looked at it.

"What?" Ron asked curiously.

"It's not from your parents," he muttered before passing Hermione three small white envelopes that were inside the letter, "these are wedding invitations to Bill and Fleur's wedding, but this letter is from Ginny."

"Need some alone time to think of your girlfriend?" Ron teased.

Harry tensed up for a moment before saying, "Actually mate…I…erm…I kinda broke up with Ginny…"

The shocked look on both his friends' faces was understandable, but there was something in Hermione's face that Harry couldn't decipher, but he knew the angry look on Ron's anywhere.

"You broke up with my sister? When? Why?" Ron spluttered out.

"Yes, at D-the funeral (he couldn't bring himself to say Dumbledore name aloud just yet) and…well…I just thought it was for the best," Harry admitted.

Hermione smiled sadly and said, "You're too self righteous Harry. Giving up what you want isn't always the best thing you know."

Harry shrugged and said, "I know, but I know what I did was the right thing."

There was a pause before Hermione asked, "What's the letter about, if you don't mind me asking?"

Harry handed it to her and she read it over.

_Dear Harry,_

_It's been nearly a month now since you, Ron and Hermione went to stay with those horrid people, although I don't quite know why. I miss you a lot and can't wait until you come back to the Burrow for Bill's wedding. The plans are going great! You know I'd never thought I'd say it but I'm kinda glad that Phlegm is as prim and proper as they come…she is doing an excellent job at planning the wedding. I was hoping that you would like to come as my date, I'm sure Ron and Hermione are going to go together like that. (Hermione made a face that once again Harry could understand). I can't wait to see you again, and I hope Hogwarts is open this year so we can spend more time together. I need to go now, I need to get fitted for my dress, its beautiful!_

_Missing you,_

_Ginny Weasley_

Hermione's mouth turned into a thin line and she said, "Well at least the wedding is going good."

Harry chuckled slightly but was curious about why she suddenly seemed so angry…

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

Yes I know this isn't a sequel to Scars of Time but I don't really care…I just had this story stuck in my head for awhile so…here it is. What did you think of chapter one? It's not much but it's a start. A few people who have read my other stories would have probably noticed that this chapter was slightly more…descriptive then my other first chapters. Also normally I jump right into the story, but I don't really know how the plot is going to develop myself so might as well not back myself into a corner right off the bat eh?

Also I mentioned up there that Harry's 17th birthday would be on a Thursday…I actually looked that up (yes I'm a loser) if anyone was wondering.

Well please review and tell me what you think! Also don't be afraid to suggest some things for the plot and such!

_**Krystal Lily Potter **_


	2. A Curious Question

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Two:_** A Curious Question  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure, Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the six items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least dangerous ones of all that he must face. Can he bring back the light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes such as death (no this story does not contain any sex so if people are looking for that then I'm sorry to disappoint you)

* * *

"_**Life isten percent of what you make it and 90 percentof how you take it"**_

* * *

Hermione twisted a lock of her brown, curly hair around her finger as she sat on a swing in the park reading a book. There was a frustrated look on her face, one that caused Harry and Ron (who were sitting on the ground) keep a good distance from her kicking range. While she was reading a book with a blank black cover they were looking at maps.

Harry was searching the map for several places in particular, but he was having a lot of trouble because some of the places he needed to find were in the magical world, and he only had a muggle map at the moment.

"When we get a magical map," Ron had said, "there won't be any of these muggle places on it so we have to keep them both." This annoyed Harry to no end, why couldn't there be a map with both muggle and magical places on it?

In his mind he knew why, because the two worlds were too separate from each other, something that made him angrier and angrier as he got older. Growing up as a muggle child and living in the muggle world as a teenager he knew very well the problems of racism in the muggle world between different nationalities, religions, colors and everything else like that. As a wizard he was all too aware of the hatred many purebloods had against muggleborns and half-bloods.

It was ironic really, he thought for the millionth time over, that the leader of the activists most against muggleborns and half-bloods was a half-blood himself, something which he concealed with his fake name. Very few, if any, of Voldemort's modern day followers knew of his past life as Tom Riddle, for if they did they would all wonder why his name wasn't one of the old Pureblood ones.

Then again Severus Snape had hid his half-blood heritage from everyone with as much ease as Tom had. As thoughts of his former potions professor assaulted Harry's mind a dark feeling started creeping into his blood: hate. He hated Snape for all the deception that the man had put not only him through but Dumbledore as well. Dumbledore had trusted Snape with his life yet Snape had killed him when he was defenseless.

"It's something only a coward does," Hermione had said to him when he explained everything to her.

Harry had to agree, Snape was a coward, but, even Harry had to admit that he was a sly and intelligent coward.

In a dream he had seen the scene where Snape and Narcissa Malfoy had made the Unbreakable Vow and he had seen the place where Snape lived. It had taken forever but he finally found Spinner's End on the map, and after reading up on the area it was located Harry was surprised that he had found it at all.

He focused his thoughts back on the map in front of him, not wanting to think about Snape or Malfoy or anyone else at the moment; he had a job to do.

Circled on the map were the places in the muggle world where he knew Voldemort went at one point of time: Little Hangleton where the Riddle manor and Gaunt house were, the town where the orphanage that Voldemort grew up in, the beach where the cave was, and places like that. There were very few places marked on the muggle map, but the wizarding one was covered in red marks and x's to the significant places that Voldemort had been seen over the years.

Currently Harry was gazing over the muggle map while Ron was looking at the wizard map with an equal look of frustration.

"I give up!" Hermione exclaimed suddenly and stopped her book onto the dirt beneath her feet, "I can't find anything on how to destroy a horcrux!"

Harry sighed at her and said, "Maybe we're not looking in the right place. I suppose if a person wanted to hide what a horcrux was, so that a person would never want to make one they'd hide ANY information on it."

"Yes, including how to destroy one," Hermione agreed with a wince, "this is going to be impossible."

"You know," Harry said suddenly, "I think we have to make one more stop this summer. We're going to the wedding, then to Godric's Hallow, but I have one more place I definitely want to go."

"Where's that?" Ron asked.

"Grimmauld Place," Harry said.

Ron looked at him with confusion and said, "Harry mate, are you…er…sure you want to do that?"

"There will be some risk," Harry said, "because…well…Dumbledore (he said his name hesitantly) is dead the charm won't be on the house to hide it anymore so Death Eaters could get in as well but…"

Harry trailed off because Hermione had made an odd sound. Looking at her he saw understanding and excitement plastured on her face. "Of course Harry! It's brilliant!"

"What is?" Ron asked, still confused.

"Oh Ronald," Hermione said with a soft sigh, "we're going to Grimmauld place to go to the library."

"What?" he asked again.

"The Blacks were some of the darkest wizards in history, where better to look for books on pure evil magic, then in the library of a family where nearly everyone worshiped the dark arts?" Hermione explained to him.

"That…" Ron trailed off, "Is the best idea I've heard all day."

"So it's settled, location number three is Grimmauld Place," Harry said.

* * *

Dudley Dursley grinned when he saw young thirteen year old Mark Evans run away from him in fright; the boy was one of his favorite punching bags. He had always had a favorite person to beat up on in his life. When he was fifteen Mark Evans became his newest one, before that had been a boy named Randy Valenne and before that had been his cousin, Harry Potter.

The thought of his cousin made him shiver from fear. Yes after years of harassing Harry Potter it was now he who held the upper hand. Dudley was no fool; he had been warned by his father time and time again that Potter would be able to do magic outside of his creepy school soon.

Dudley had hoped that he would at least be able to get in a little bit of time without fear of Harry in the summer; his school year did end first, but apparently fate wasn't so kind to him. His father had picked him up from the train station with a grim look on his face; Vernon gave him a simple warning: Harry was home early and he had two friends with him.

Dudley hadn't believed it until he saw the red head that had been with the two to mutate his tongue three year prior. He remembered turning an ugly purple color at the sight of the young man and had nearly run out of the room when Potter entered the room with the girl.

He had to admit, the girl was pretty with her simple looks, and it had been a shock to the entire family when they learned that her parents were two prominent dentists in London. This made her the preferred one of the three magic people.

In general when he was with his friends Dudley would avoid his cousin. He didn't want to be put in a position where he would have to confront Harry because he knew he couldn't stand up to his cousin without a terrified look on his face and with the reputation Dudley had that would not do at all.

His best friend Piers Polkiss led the way through the park and Dudley had a sense of foreboding in him. On his first day back he had tracked Potter and his two friends (Granger and Weasley, if he remembered right) and he had found that they either stayed up in Harry's room or hung around the park. This had been a relief to his parents, since they were rarely ever seen when up in Potter's room and when they were in the park it was easy to deny any connection they had to the Dursleys. Now though, Dudley was praying that they had decided to stay in the house today but it was oddly nice out (it had been a very cold summer that year) he knew they'd most likely be outside.

Piers' girlfriend, Veronica West, hung off his arm and giggled at anything anyone said. She was a skinny girl that looked like a drown rat. Potter had been the one to make that claim and, for the first time in his life, Dudley had to agree with him. Of course he never told Harry this to his face, but his mother had mentioned that his cousin did have a good sense in when a human resembled an animal.

Pier had told Veronica about all the stories where they had harassed Harry when they were younger and she eagerly said she'd like to see the small, pathetic looking boy for herself, hence the reason they were scouting the park for Potter.

Dudley felt a lump form in his throat as they turned the corner and he saw Potter sitting on the ground with his two friends only a few meters away.

* * *

Hepzibah Smith had owned the Locket of Slytherin and the Chalice of Hufflepuff at one point in her life, before being deceived and murdered by Tom Riddle. Once in his possession Tom had put pieces of his soul into them and separated them. Still, Hermione thought it was a good idea to perhaps search the places where the items had originally been.

They had looked up information on her and the murder, but it hadn't been easy. Hermione had been getting incredibly frustrated by their lack of findings until she found a single newspaper article. This article was from the Smith family, who mentioned Hepzibah in memorial, and they also mentioned their new son that had been born: Zacharias Smith.

This had sent all three of them into a fit of relief and irony, none of them particularly like Zacharias but now they'd have to try and pry information out of him without letting on as to what they were doing.

Harry was packing away all his maps and books into his knapsack when a groan escaped his lips. Ron and Hermione looked up to see what he was staring at. A group of teenagers were coming their way, and ones of the ones in the lead was Dudley Dursley.

"This should be interesting," Harry said with a weak grin on his face, "Very interesting."

"Potter!" Piers called out to him, "Long time no see, old _friend_." All the people around him laughed when he said friend.

Hermione looked at them, visibly unimpressed with them. One of the other boys in Dudley's group noticed her and said, "Hey Big D, who's the chick hanging with Potter and this…other loser (Ron's ears slowly turned a brilliant shade of red). Does he actually have friends now?"

Harry glared at this boy with a look of utter disgust, worse then the looks he had given Dudley before. This was Tyson Bryce, and, although Dudley had been the one to physically beat Harry the most it was Tyson who mentally harassed Harry the most as a child.

Hermione jumped off the swing and marched over to the group. Her bright brown eyes flashed dangerously at the group before she turned to Dudley and said, "You're awfully quite Dursley. What's wrong, are you afraid of us?"

"I hope you do know who you're talking to," Veronica piped up.

"What do you guys like to call him…Double D is it?" Hermione asked sarcastically.

"Who do you think you are?" Tyson asked coldly, "The great Potter defender?"

Before anyone could say anything else Harry was up beside Hermione. He glared down at Tyson and said, "She, unlike you, is a good person with real friends. Now what do you want?"

"I wanted to show my girlfriend (he gave Veronica a smile) one of our old…friends…that's all," Piers sad with a nasty grin, "You know, show her all the old good times we used to have."

"Oh, you mean beating up people younger or smaller than yourself?" Harry asked venomously.

Dudley made an odd sound, causing all of them to stare at him. His eyes were resting on the tip of Harry's wand, which was sticking out of his pocket. Quickly he looked up at his friends and said, "They're nothing but pathetic weaklings, not even worth our time."

"Come on Dud," Piers said suddenly, "Don't tell me that you're afraid of Potter."

Dudley sent Piers a death glare before saying, "Of course not! I'm a boxing champion! He couldn't beat me!"

"Yeah and I'm the bloody boy who lived," Harry snapped, "But you don't hear me saying that I'm invincible."

An odd look passed over Veronica's face but everyone else just laughed and stared at Harry as if he was prey begging for mercy.

"The boy who lived?" Tyson said slowly, "What kind of name is that Potter?"

"You hear a lot of odd names like that, you know…the boy who lived…you-know-who…he who must not be named…and so on," Ron said with a small grin. He had come up and stood at Harry's other side.

"What kind of school do you go to?" another boy asked.

"Piers," Veronica said suddenly, "can we leave? These people don't seem like much and I don't want to be seen with them."

"I—"

"Please?"

"Fine," Dudley grunted, "I'll deal with you at home Potter. Let's go."

As the gang walked away Harry called out, "Looking forward to it Dudley!"

"That was pointless," Hermione said after a moment.

Harry shrugged and said, "Piers was just showing off for his girlfriend."

"What do you think Dudley's going to do later?" Ron asked as they grabbed their stuff and headed towards Privet Drive.

"In all honesty? Absolutely nothing," he replied without worry.

* * *

"Boy!" Vernon Dursley roared from downstairs, "Come here!"

Harry let out a groan and pushed himself up off of the floor of his bedroom and out of the door. Slowly he walked down the stairs, avoiding the stair that creaked. He reached the ground floor and walked into the living room. All the Dursley's were sitting in the living room, Vernon looking livid as always, Dudley looked about ready to wet himself and Petunia looking neutral.

"Yes?" Harry asked suspiciously, staring at each one of them in turn.

Vernon stared at him before speaking in a dark tone, "Petunia tells us that your _birthday_ (he said that word as if witches and wizards couldn't have something as normal as a birthday) is next week, correct?"

"Good job, after sixteen years you've finally got it right," Harry said sarcastically.

Vernon ignored him and said, "I expect you and your friends to be out of my house nice and early that day."

"Like we'd want to stay here longer than we have to," Harry interjected.

"So I want you to start packing your stuff up now…"

"I didn't unpack my stuff; there isn't enough room in that small room."

Vernon glared at him and said, "Don't be so ungrateful! We let those…_freaks_ stay here out of the kindness of our hearts."

Harry snorted and said, "You mean the same kindness that made me live in a cupboard for the first 10 years of my life here? Or the kindness that gave me only Dudley's hand-me-downs for clothes (aside from underwear but Harry didn't mention that)? Or is it the kindness of calling me a freak, trying to lie to me about what I really am, letting Dudley and his friends terrorize me as a child or letting Marge be a complete bitch to me? Well Vernon? Which one is it?"

Vernon's face turned a nasty shade of purple and he stuttered, "I-we-you-we---WE GAVE YOU A ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD! WE FED YOU! WE—"

Finally Harry lost his temper as he too started yelling, "YOU TOOK ME IN BECAUSE YOU WERE AFRAID OF DUMBLEDORE! YOU NEVER TOOK CARE OF ME PROPERLY! TO YOU I WAS A SLAVE! NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS!"

Everything went silent until Petunia made an odd sound. All three males in the room looked at her to see she had a hand over her mouth and tears streaking down her cheeks.

Harry's anger started to dissipate at the sight of his normally tough aunt break down. He had seen her angry before, and terrified, but never once had he seen her cry. No one said anything, they just waited to see what she had to say.

"He's right," she finally choked out, "he's right and there's nothing we can do about it. If something had happened…and Lily was alive while Vernon, you and I had died, I wouldn't want her or Potter to treat Dudley like we did Harry."

"If something ever happened to us he would have went to Marge," Vernon soothed.

"I don't care! Who Dudley would have went to is not the point!" she screamed, "Lily trusted us to take care of him and…we kept him alive…but just that…"

The silence that hung around them made Harry uncomfortable as a question weighed down on him. He still remembered the first rule he had come to learn while living with the Dursley's: never ask questions. That rule hung over his head but he just had to know... "What do you mean my mom trusted you to take care of me? She probably expected Sirius to take care of me."

"She died with the killing curse didn't she?" Petunia said, surprising Harry to no end, "That Avada Kedavra one right? You shouldn't have lived when it hit you but you did. Harry, one thing you have to know about your mother is she wasn't…normal…even for your kind. She was a muggleborn witch with powers that some purebloods only wished they had. She knew ancient magic…she understood the old texts…and she knew many old rituals…and wasn't afraid to use it."

"How do you know all those wizard terms?" Harry asked, "Avada Kedavra, muggleborn and pureblood?"

"Lily told me. She told me so much about your world…" Petunia trailed off. She seemed to stare at Harry as if she suddenly realized something, "Didn't you ever wonder how Dumbledore knew your mother had used ancient magic and that being with her blood would keep you safe? Voldemort didn't know, other wise he wouldn't have attack you, would he?"

Harry stared at her with wide eyes. That was true, how did Dumbledore know that ancient blood magic was what saved Harry from death?

He purposely ignored the question for now and asked, "Why are you telling me all of this now?"

"Because we'll never get the chance to tell you later, will we?" Petunia explained calmly.

Suddenly Harry felt different about the family of three sitting in front of him. They were ignorant to no end, but they weren't evil people and they deserved a chance to live. He bit his lip then said, "When I leave here I want you to leave too."

"Why should we listen to you?" Dudley said, speaking for the first time.

"Because on my seventeenth birthday the magic that protects this house…including all of you…will fade. You'll be open targets to anyone who wants to kill you…anyone who wants the family of Harry Potter dead…which would be a lot of people in my world," he explained before turning around and leaving the room.

As he walked up the stairs back to his room his mind went over that one question that Petunia had asked. How did Dumbledore know? Harry thought back to the cave, how had Dumbledore known were the entrance was and how had he known that they needed blood to get in?

It was all based on blood, Harry decided as he pushed the door to his room open, that was the key. His eyes glanced in the direction of Ron and Hermione, both who had nervously snapped the books they were looking at shut and hid them away. He didn't even bother trying to figure out what they had been doing, he was too interested in blood now.

"We never did find out exactly HOW to create a horcrux, did we?" Harry said suddenly.

"No," Hermione replied with a slight surprised look on her face.

"We need to find out," was all Harry said before sitting on his bed. He continued to think to himself, and neither Ron nor Hermione said anything to him, it was obvious that something important was on his mind.

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

Yes it's going a little slow and his confrontation with the Dursley's probably doesn't make much sense to a lot of people…like why Petunia is being nice and all. Well she isn't being a completely nice but I figure if anyone did know Lily it would be her.

Also the thing with Dumbledore…that's always made me wonder how he knew about the magic when Voldemort didn't. I know Dumbledore says that Voldemort underestimated love and all but still...yeah anyways...the story picks up more in the next chapter! Promise!

Haha and people got my wrong…I didn't expect any suggestions for a plot line…especially since no one knows how this is going yet! I was pointing out that I don't mind if people suggest things later on. I might use some suggestions…I might not. See with Half Blood Prince AU and Scars of Time I had the stories planned out for a long time before I actually finished them. Actually I planned out SoT when I was writing HBP AU. With those ones I had a small summary of each chapter…which went though a lot of editing as I wrote the story. This one however I know where I want to go…different things I want to happen but I don't have an actual story plan written out.

So yes later on if you have an idea I don't mind if you share it (I know some authors just tell people to back off because it's their story but I only do that when people start arguing with something that I was 100 percent sure I wanted to happen).

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! If you have any questions, suggestions, concerns or anything like that just ask…I'll give a reply in the next chapter! Or even send you a reply...

I'm not going to reply to all the reviews like I used to, because some are a little hard to reply to but if there are good questions or points that are good I will reply to them! Promise!

**_Krystal Lily Potter _**


	3. Knows No Boundaries

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Three:_** Knows No Boundaries  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure, Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the six items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least dangerous ones of all that he must face. Can he bring back the light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes such as death (no this story does not contain any sex so if people are looking for that then I'm sorry to disappoint you)

* * *

"_**Life was never intended to be an individual adventure. You need a team to get through all of your worries and problems."**_

* * *

The next week and a half flew by for Harry and before he knew it he, Ron and Hermione were putting the last of their books back in their overstuffed trunks and putting them by the door.

"Mom sent me an owl," Ron said as he walked downstairs, dragging his trunk behind him, "Dad's being a little slow so we're going to have to wait a few hours. Problems in the ministry."

"When aren't there problems?" Harry muttered as he quieted Hedwig down. She didn't like being stuck in her cage in front of the Dursleys, it made her feel vulnerable.

She hooted when Vernon looked in the room and snapped her beak at him. He quickly retreated back into the living room.

Harry sat down beside the luggage and said, "Just great, now we have to be stuck here with them even longer!"

"Maybe we should go take a walk in the park?" Hermione suggested.

"Dudley's there with his gang. Probably either beating up some poor kid or getting high," Harry replied dully.

"Can we just go outside then? It's getting really…hot in here," Hermione said as if unsure of how the room felt. It was true, the day had been extremely hot for some reason, and with the sun beating in the windows it was incredibly hot and uncomfortable in the house.

"It won't be any better outside," Ron said while looking out the window, "It's probably twice as hot out there. Plus we wouldn't want Mr. Chosen one here to get burnt?" He motioned towards Harry, referring to Harry's pale skin. Where Ron usually just freckled and Hermione tanned Harry was known to get nasty sun burns.

"Harry," Petunia's voice called from the kitchen, "come here for a second."

He rolled his eyes and slowly walked into the kitchen. It was slightly cooler in this room, since the sun was shining in the other side of the house and the ceiling fan was on as high as it could go.

"Yes Aunt Petunia?" he asked with a monotone voice.

She turned around and passed him an old looking key into his hands. He looked on with confusion until she said, "You're going to Gordie's Hallow or whatever it's called, right?"

"Godric's Hallow, and yes I am, why?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"From what I heard from your Headmaster (Harry hadn't told the Dursleys that Dumbledore was dead yet) the whole house wasn't destroyed…mostly just where your bedroom was. When you go there, find your parent's room and look under their bed and there should be a box, at least I think it'll be under the bed. This key is for that box."

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"It's Lily's Keepsake box. She always kept it under her bed when she lived in the same house as me, and she also admitted that it was where she kept it during the school year so I assume that's where she kept it when she moved. She asked me to keep a spare key when we were very young because she had a habit of loosing small objects. I kept this one but I suppose you have more reason to want it now," Petunia said while passing it to him.

Harry stared at it for a moment before saying, "You're leaving soon, right?"

"Yes, we are heading to the United States for a vacation, then we're moving, like you suggested," Petunia said, "As soon as Vernon comes back."

Harry continued to stare at his aunt before saying, "You know, after all these years that I complained about living here to no end…I can't believe it's finally time to say goodbye. I guess most things in life are like that though, aren't they?"

Petunia smiled at him, it was the first honest smile she had ever given him in her life. She opened her mouth and closed it several times before finally saying, "I'm glad you turned out the way you did. I know you're famous in your world, but it doesn't affect you. I'd like to take the credit for how you turned out but I don't deserve that right. Your friends do. You're right Harry, most things in life are like that…I never realized that until my poor Duddy got hurt…but I'm glad you understand so early on in life."

The sound of Vernon pulling into the drive way caused Harry and Petunia to look at the doorway. Petunia slowly gathered up the bags in the kitchen before walking to the door. Harry sighed and looked out the window of number four Privet Drive. Dudley had returned home and was helping his father put the last of the suitcases that had been waiting on the step into the trunk and—

Someone was watching them very closely. Someone with a black hood and a skull mask…

"DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!" Harry yelled to his aunt but it was too late, she had already opened it and had stepped outside, when the cloaked figure from across the road raised their hand, revealing a wand and yelled, "**_Avada Kedavra_**!"

Petunia let out a scream the second she heard those words. With reflexes and strength that Harry didn't even know she had she pulled Dudley out of the way and to the ground. Vernon wasn't so fortunate as they though. Instead of ducking when he heard the words he had turned around to see what was happened. The curse did not hit him though, it hit the car, which quickly exploded, sending Vernon Dursley flying backwards several feet and into unconsciousness.

Harry was sure the only time he had moved this fast was when falling to the ground off his broomstick. He bolted out of the door, followed closely by Ron and Hermione. At the same time all three of them raised their wands and yelled, "**_Expelliarmus!_**"

All three spells smashed into the single Death Eater, throwing him backwards as his wand shot forwards. Harry rushed towards his aunt and cousin when he heard several loud cracks. His blood ran cold as he saw at least a dozen Death Eaters appear before him.

Ron and Hermione were on either side of him and all three had their wands pointing at the oncoming danger.

"Twelve of them…three of us…we each take four…that's not going to turn out well for us," Hermione muttered so only Harry and Ron could hear.

"How'd you figure that?" Ron asked, although his gaze never left the Death Eaters.

"Division."

"Diviniation?"

"Not a good time guys," Harry hissed at them, his eyes skirting around for a way to break up the group.

"Potter," a woman said in the way a person would talk to a small baby, "Potter…Potter…you can't hide from us anymore here, can you?"

"Unfortunately no…so I guess I'm stuck seeing your ugly face eh Trixy?" he said sarcastically.

Bellatrix Lestrange tore her hood down and gave Harry a look of death. He didn't let her intimidate him though; instead he glared right back at her.

Suddenly everyone's attention was turned to Hermione. She turned her wand away from the Death Eaters and whispered, "**_Expecto Patronum_**." The otter appeared in front of them then quickly flew away. No one was exactly sure what she had done.

That's when it hit Harry, Tonks had sent her Patronus to tell someone in the castle to let she and Harry in. Hermione had sent a message for help.

* * *

Remus Lupin sat at the kitchen table in his house. It was only a small house, located in the middle of the woods. The seclusion made him feel better about his transformations, knowing that he couldn't hurt anyone. The only time that he became a little worried about an accident with humans was when hunting season began. He usually left and went to the mountains at that time of year and would barricade himself in the deep dark caves on the nights of the full moon.

Now though there was a second residence in the house, and that person made Remus fear each transformation because she was so stubborn and, in the beginning, had refused to leave the house when his transformation in June had come around, only the week after the Hogwarts School year was cut short but after he literally locked her in a thick closet. Nymphadora Tonks hadn't been happy about that, but she got his point and when the full moon approached around the 19th of July she evacuated the area.

Remus got so frustrated at the younger witch often but he still loved her to death. He was glad that, after nearly a year of avoiding her, he was finally with her.

Currently the witch in question was sitting in the chair across from him with a mirror in front of her. She was changing her hair and eye color rapidly, trying to decide on the one she wanted to wear today.

"Why don't you just wear your natural colors?" he blurted out suddenly.

She shot him an amused look with her currently dark purple eyes then said, "That would be boring."

"I'd like to see it. I never have."

Tonks rolled her eyes at him before saying, "Are you sure? I…erm…well…you know that my grandfather and Sirius's father were twins right? Identical? Well Sirius looked like his father my mother looked like her father and I look like my mother so…"

"You look like Sirius," Remus finished for her. He smiled sadly and said, "That's alright Tonks. There's nothing wrong with remembering him."

Tonks smiled at him before closing her eyes and concentrating on her natural hair and eyes. It had been years since she had seen her normal self. Physically she looked like she always had but she was constantly changing her hair and eyes.

Her hair, which had been fire engine red, short and spiky, straightened out and went down just past her shoulders. It turned jet black and when she opened her eyes they were a bright grey color, the exact same as Sirius's had been.

Remus grinned and said, "There you go, you're a natural beauty."

She blushed lightly and laughed before her eyes rested out something just outside the window. Remus turned around and followed her gaze. Suddenly a glittering silver otter flew through the window and moved in the air in front of them.

"That's Hermione's Patronus!" Tonks said with a gasp.

"Wasn't she and Ron staying at Privet Drive with Harry?" Remus asked with alarm. Both of them watched the otter fly around the room with a feeling of panic echoing out of it.

"Yes," Tonks said. They stared at each other for a split second before apparating to Privet Drive.

* * *

Bellatrix looked at Hermione angrily. Her dark, soulless eyes flashed angrily as she took a step towards the three friends and said, "What did you just do girl?"

Hermione didn't answer; she just continued to glare at her with a look of silent disgust.

"That, Lestrange, was a call for help to the Order," another voice hissed.

Harry felt his blood boil with anger as he put a name to the voice. It was the last person he wanted to hear right now...the last person he ever wanted to see.

"You!" Harry roared.

"Yes Potter, me," he replied and pushed his hood down, revealing the person to be Severus Snape.

"Traitor," Harry hissed angrily, "You bloody traitor! You deserve to be tortured for what you did to Dumbledore! You killed him when he was helpless!"

"Enough talk," Snape said, ignoring Harry's words, "I have a proposition for you Potter."

"You think I'm willing to do anything for you?"

"The Dark Lord wants you alive. The proposition is you come with us willingly and we won't kill your friends," he continued on, once again ignoring Harry's pervious statement.

Hermione snorted, causing everyone to look at her. She realized that once again she was the center of attention and she said, "That's a load of filth if I ever heard one! You have no intentions of letting us just walk away alive no matter what Harry does!"

"**_Crucio_**," Bellatrix said with a bored tone. Hermione fell to her knees and let out a horrifying scream of pain.

"Hermione!" both Harry and Ron yelled before turning around and launching curses at the Death Eaters. Slowly Hermione pushed herself off the ground and joined her two friends in fighting.

Spells flew left and right all over Privet Drive. Families in the other houses came out to see what was happening, but none of them could figure out exactly what was going on. They saw streaks of colorful light being thrown from one group of adults to a group of teenagers and vice versa.

Stupefy, confundo, crucio, imperio, diffindo, expelliarmus and finite were only some of the odd words they heard the people saying. It confused all the muggles to no end.

"**_Avada Kedavra_**."

Now every muggle has heard of the well know "abracadabra" spell used by many magicians around the world as the magic word for everything, but none of them expected to see what the outcome of the true version of this spell.

It hit Mr. Willkins and he fell to the ground, dead.

A panic arose and people started running from the scene. No one even noticed two people appear in the middle of the road and rush towards the fighters.

"**_Stupefy!_**" Harry looked over to see that Tonks and Remus had arrived on the scene, followed a few minutes later by Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad-Eye Moody.

The Death Eaters seemed to realize that the tides were turning for them. Potter and his friends had done an exceptional job and had stunned a few of their comrades; they were outnumbered now.

Quickly the Death Eaters started vanishing. Bellatrix glared at Harry and said, "This is not the end Potter! Avada Kedavra!"

Even as Harry ducked the spell he knew he had made a terrible choice in doing so. Out of the corner of his eye he saw where the spell was heading and started to feel sick: it was heading towards Dudley and Petunia.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion as Petunia looked up and saw the emerald green light heading towards her and her son. With a scream of terror that seemed to echo in the air Petunia threw herself in front of her massive son and then the slow motion seemed to turn off.

Harry covered his eyes and the spell slammed into them and—caught the grass on fire?

There was a burning inferno on the ground no, but no Petunia or Dudley. Harry looked around with confusion and finally gasped at what he saw.

There, kneeling on the ground in the completely opposite direction of where she had been before was Petunia Dursley, cradling her son with tears in her blue eyes.

* * *

"I don't understand," Harry said to Remus as he watched Tonks treat his aunt and cousin, "How did she do it, how did she apparate? She doesn't have any magic in her."

"Everyone has a little bit of magic in them Harry," Remus said after a moment, "whether they realize it or not."

Both Harry and Ron stared at him with confusion, but their attention was quickly turned to Hermione as she started speaking, "Haven't you two ever heard of odd stories about a mother lifting a car off the ground to save her child, or fighting and defeating a man twice their size in order to protect her children?"

"If there is one thing in the world that no man can comprehend," Remus started, "aside from woman in general, is the love from a mother to her child. The extra nine months the mother spends with the child when it's in her womb seems to create a bond that no father can really comprehend."

"The love that a mother feels for her child has no boundaries," Tonks spoke up as she walked out of the room. They were in the house of Privet Drive again, waiting for word from the other Order members that went to search the area for more Death Eaters. "Why do you think that you hear the stories of women doing incredible, and sometimes very stupid things for their children? The magic inside any person, witch, muggle or any other type of creature, can be unleashed at the threat of her child."

"It can make people do amazing things. Tear metal doors off of their burning cars to get an infant out, hold their breath under water longer than any other to save their child, appear in a safer place…or even die so that the child can live (Tonks' eye flickered towards Harry). A mother's love knows no boundaries…remember that…"

"Tonks," Hermione said after a moment, "That was the most inspiring thing that I've ever heard you say."

Tonks flashed a smile at Hermione and said, "It's women's intuition, we just know these things."

"There's a muggle healer coming," Remus said suddenly, while looking out the window. ("A doctor?" Harry and Hermione both asked with a sigh). "We should probably go now."

"Where to?" Hermione asked.

"His house," Remus said while nodding towards Ron, "Where else? I see you have all your things together so we better leave as soon as we can."

Ron and Hermione rushed over to their stuff and were ready to leave within seconds. Harry, however, hesitated for a moment. He looked around the kitchen and the living room; even though he despised his childhood in this house, he knew that somewhere, deep in his heart, he would miss it. Quickly he walked into the living room, where Petunia sat on a chair and Dudley lay on the couch. Petunia looked at him for a moment before he said, "Goodbye."

"Goodbye Harry," he heard her whisper as he left the room. Ron, Hermione, Remus and Tonks were staring at him, waiting to go.

Moody appeared into the house and said, "Alright, move fast, I don't like them so called "doctors"." He passed them a portkey and, as all of them touched it and started to vanish. Harry took the last look of Privet Drive that he would ever see in a very long time…

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

Well we've said goodbye to the Dursleys and we're going back to the wizarding world. Yes I know…slow beginning but whatever…

Sorry for the long wait between updates but I've been working like crazy plus vacation and stuff before school, ya know what I mean? Well tell me what you think of this chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I really appreciate that someone likes the story!

_**Krystal Lily Potter **_


	4. With the Weasleys

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Four:_** With the Weasleys  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure, Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the six items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least dangerous ones of all that he must face. Can he bring back the light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes such as death (no this story does not contain any sex so if people are looking for that then I'm sorry to disappoint you)

Just so you know there are no "couples" in this story, no major romance or anything else…possibly a little flirting and so on but nothing huge so no one has to worry about H/Hr or H/G and all that nice stuff because I don't care about it…

--------------------------------------------------

"_**The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone."**_

--------------------------------------------------

"My goodness Harry! You're much too thin!"

This was the very first thing that had come out of Molly Weasley's mouth when she had first seen him that day. It amused him to no end that, no matter what, Molly Weasley never did change.

He sat at the kitchen table, watching her bustle around the room preparing food. She had already sent Ron out to the gardens for carrots and Hermione had wandered off around the house to find Ginny, but Mrs. Weasley had asked Harry to stay in the kitchen with her.

It puzzled him though, because she had yet to ask him to do anything. So he opted to sit at the table and wait to assist her.

Finally she stopped moving and sighed sadly. Harry watched as she set down the wooden spoon that had been in her hand and was surprised when she said, "My son is getting married. My first son. I never thought…"

A concerned look appeared on his face as he heard her sobs begin. Harry had never been that good with comforting crying women, let alone comforting someone he saw as a mother figure.

"Are you alright Mrs. Weasley?"

She faced him while drying her blue eyes. After staring at him for a moment she said, "Children grow up so fast. One day they're little babies in your arms, the next they're in school, then they run off and make a family of their own then…you wait for them to join you in the afterlife. I do wish that my parents were here to see their first grandson get married though."

Harry didn't say anything, he just nodded slowly; this seemed to please Molly though as she continued on with her story, "My parents died during the first war. I remember, I was with my mother when she died. The last words she ever said were 'I'll be waiting, but don't come too soon'. My poor mother, she was heartbroken when my brothers Fabian and Gideon died…they were much too young to die. Just like Lily and James were…"

Harry's heart constricted at the mention of his parents. After Tonks had explained the situation where Petunia had used magic to save her son it made him think more and more about what his mother had done for him. Earlier the thoughts of Lily Evans made his head spin and ache.

He pushed the thoughts of his mother out of his mind for now, he could think about that later, but now that he was hearing about Molly's family he had a question for her.

"Were Fabian and Gideon your only siblings?"

Mrs. Weasley blinked with surprise before saying, "Goodness no. I grew up with a fairly large family. Fabian and Gideon were my older brothers, they were twins, then there was me, then Matthew, and Marcus and…" Her voice trailed off and a look of emotional pain crossed her face.

"You're sister, Sarah Prewett right?" Harry blurted out quickly.

She stared at him for a moment before saying, "Yes, how do you know that?"

"Aunt Petunia mentioned her. She said that my mother was good friends with a girl named Sarah Prewett and I knew that was your maiden name so…"

A small smile appeared on Molly's face and she said, "Yes you always were good at solving riddles ("That's Hermione," Harry attempted to argue.). Yes Sarah was my little sister and she was friends with Lily. Sarah got along with Fabian and Gideon very well because she was like them: a fiery dragon protecting it's young. We didn't see eye to eye however, and I said many terrible things to her in my life. The last words I ever said to her were 'All you do is bring shame to our family'. Can you believe I said that Harry? To my own sister! Then, the next day, we got word back that she had died while attempting to help stop a Death Eater raid in the place she had been."

Tears were streaking down Molly's face. Harry was so surprised by this story that he said, "Why would you say that to her?" It was obvious that this was very painful for Molly to speak about, but he was so curious.

"She wasn't married, and she was so young, but she had a child," Molly explained after a moment, "A little boy apparently. As far as I know he was sent to an orphanage after she died because no one knew who the father was. I'm not even sure if he's still alive…when I attempted to find out I couldn't find any information on the boy at all. I never even knew his name. See what I mean Harry, life goes by too fast for us to make petty mistakes that we'll regret forever." She said this last part bitterly.

"You think that Bill's making a mistake by marrying Fleur? Just like you make the mistake of insulting Sarah before she died?" Harry asked with shock.

"Set the table for me Harry dear," Molly said without hesitation. She never did answer Harry's question but she didn't have to, he knew what the answer to it was already.

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An odd noise came out of Ron's mouth that evening when Fleur Delacour first entered the room. Harry studied her for a moment, noting that she had yet to change in appearance. She was still gorgeous and her long blond hair still flowed around her like an angel, but when her eyes met his in greeting he saw, if only for a moment, that she was different inside. No matter what Mrs. Weasley thought about her Fleur was definitely changing: in her eyes Harry saw more maturity then before, and he knew at that moment that Bill was not making a mistake by marrying her.

Ron said very little at lunch, but when he did speak his voice came out in odd little squeaks, which made Harry roll his eyes while grinning and cause Hermione to give him small glares. Fleur seemed oblivious to Ron's attention, as she kept hers focused on her future husband.

Bill looked much better than the last time Harry had seen him. There were a few scars on his face and he ate his meat fairly raw but aside from that he was the same Bill he had always known. Apparently the man had a few mood swings but Remus said that it was likely to happen because of the wolf in him and he especially needed to watch out for agitation.

Aside from Harry, a glaring Hermione, a star-struck Ron, Bill and Fleur the only other ones at the table were Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley and Ginny. When Harry saw Ginny sitting at the table he purposely sat as far away from her as he could. Hermione had rolled her eyes at him when he silently pleaded for her to sit beside him, noticing that Ginny looked entirely too tempted to move into the empty seat. Now the fiery haired girl kept giving Harry and Hermione looks torn between frustration and curiosity.

"Fleur, are your parents here yet?" Mrs. Weasley asked suddenly, breaking the long silence.

"Yes," she replied, "They have decided to stay in zee 'otel in zee town not far from here."

Harry had to admit, she spoke English a lot better than she did before. She still had her friend accent but he understood her much better than before.

"Oh," Mrs. Weasley said, a frown appearing on her face, "they could have stayed here. We do have enough room for them and your sister."

"No it is quite alright, they 'ave already arranged for a room there," Fleur said with a smile before turning her attention back to Bill.

A dark look appeared on Molly Weasley's face as she stared at the young woman. Although Fleur and Molly got along most of the time there was still a bit of tension between them.

"Fleur, is the site ready for the wedding?" Ginny asked suddenly, "And the reception?"

"Zee 'all for zee reception is almost finished, I am going back later to 'elp finish it," she replied to Ginny.

"Oh," Ginny gasped, "Can we go see it later?"

"Of course," Fleur said with a smile, "Actually I could use a little more 'elp finishing it. My mother is probably exhausted."

Finally Ron seemed to snap back to reality as a frown appeared on his face, even if it was for Fleur he really didn't want to go to a hall to see it let alone help finish decorating it.

Fleur caught this right away but didn't seem offended by it, "I assume that it will be you, 'Ermione and Mrs. Weasley coming with me. I assume that these men 'ave better things they need to do."

"Yes," Mrs. Weasley said suddenly and Hermione nodded with a smile.

"So boys," Mr. Weasley said after a few moments of uncomfortable silence, "while the women are away what shall we do?"

"How about a game of Quidditch in the field," Bill suggested, "It'll be fun."

Arthur laughed and said, "You can do that, I'll just sit outside and fiddle with some of these new muggle objects that I found."

"Lets see, there's three of us, we can get Fred and George to come…that leaves us with five…" Bill trailed off, "We need one more person that way there can be a seeker, chaser and keeper for each team."

"Charlie should be home soon," Ron said, "Dad told me he would be showing up not long after we did. We ended up coming a little early but still, he should be here soon."

As if hearing Ron's words the fireplace turned green, then flashed blue, and then out tumbled Charlie Weasley.

"Charlie!" Bill exclaimed with a smile and went over to his brother to help him off of the floor.

"What was that flash of blue light?" Harry asked Mr. Weasley with confusion.

"Security," he replied, "the person can only get through if he or she knows the password I put up and trust me, it's a doozy of one."

"I'll take your word for that," Harry said. He disliked traveling by Floo Powder as it was but having to stop in a chimney to say the password before stumbled into the room was something he'd rather not have to do.

"I know you just got in," Bill said to his younger brother, "But what about a game of Quidditch? I was just going to see if Fred and George could come."

"Yeah and Harry has a practice snitch," Ron said suddenly, "he got it for Christmas last year. It doesn't go out of a certain boundary you set up, right Harry?"

"Yeah, I can just set it for so many meters each way and then at least we won't lose it," Harry replied excitedly.

Charlie smiled at them for a moment before saying, "I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Why?" everyone in the room asked at once.

"There's been a lot of magical activity in the area lately. I was at the Ministry filling out some last minute paper work of a dragon one of my co-workers accidentally let escape just south of London and out of curiousty I checked to see where the hot spots for unidentified magic use as been and it was very close to here. It might just be because of the wedding and relatives coming in or it might be something else," Charlie explained, "but I don't think we should wander off very far, even if it is just to the field over there."

"If that's true then aren't mom, Fleur, Ginny and Hermione in danger?" Ron asked.

"There are already very strong wards up around the reception hall and the clearing where the wedding will be held," Bill replied.

"You're having the wedding in a clearing?" Harry asked after a moment.

"Of course, most weddings are held outdoors," Mr. Weasley said after a moment, "is it not the same in the muggle world?"

"No, most weddings are held inside churches," Harry replied.

"Churches, what are those?" Mr. Weasley inquired with interest.

Harry stared at him blankly for a moment before saying, "Umm…well churches are like temples that—"

"Oh are they those modern day temples? I didn't know they went by a different name," Mr. Weasley interrupted.

Harry was glad he didn't have to go through any big explanation of what religion was to the Weasleys, it would have been extremely uncomfortable and he didn't want to give them any wrong information on things like that. If they went to the muggle world and said something that unintentionally offended some muggles about their religion they would end up in a heap of trouble.

Charlie sat down at the kitchen table and asked, "Does anyone know what's going on at the ministry? Most people are in too much of a panic to notice but all the high ranking politicians and the top Aurors, as well as a few others seem incredibly worried about something. There is so much security in front of the Department of Mysteries that it isn't even funny."

"When I went there I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary considering the circumstances," Bill replied.

"I have," Mr. Weasley said suddenly, "I'm not sure what it is, I'm not high enough up to be informed of anything major but I know there seems to be some tension about the Muggles if that makes sense."

"Well there's no way that the Muggles don't notice that strange things are happening," Charlie said.

"I didn't notice anything odd," Ron said suddenly. Having spent a month and a half in the Muggle world Ron had noticed nothing out of the ordinary, but there was one problem with his deduction.

"Of course you haven't," Harry piped up, "you've never really spent a lot of time there have you? Things are very different. The worst part is…well…it's almost like the wards that protect the wizarding world are falling."

"Falling?"

"Muggles are noticing more things. Didn't you hear how a group of them ended up in Diagon Alley for no apparent reason? I noticed it at the Dursleys…I could actually SEE the wards around the house," Harry explained.

"What you're saying is that magic is becoming as visible to them as it is to us," Bill said after a moment of thought.

"I don't think muggles will ever be able to see everything we do, at least not as clearly as a person with magic flowing in them, but they aren't as blind as wizards like to believe they are. They will start noticing things in large amounts, amounts that not even the ministry to avoid by obliterating their memories," Harry said after a few moments of thought, "I think that's what the ministry is hiding."

"How in the world do you notice this stuff?" Ron asked after a long pause.

Harry shrugged and said, "I just notice things. It's the only way to make it through a fight."

"You know Harry," Mr. Weasley said suddenly, "I think you're on to something. I'm going to see if I can find any proof for what you're saying because if it do…the wizarding world deserves to know that they're in danger of being discovered."

Harry nodded in agreement, there were extremely difficult time a head of them all, and everyone needed to be prepared for the worst…

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After returning home from the reception hall Mrs. Weasley seemed to be in a fairly frightful mood. It was enough for even Fleur to take actually notice of and the blond woman avoided Molly like the plague. No one dared ask her what was wrong, but Harry made a note to ask Hermione later on.

"Mom," Ron said when she seemed to be in a better mood, "I'm sorry to bug you but I was wondering…"

"Fleur's family has invited us for dinner at some fancy restaurant," Mrs. Weasley interrupted, knowing her son well enough to know what he wanted, "but there was a bit of a mix up and they didn't book enough seats. There are ten seats in total but with Fleur, Gabrielle, and their parents that only leaves six."

"We don't need to go mom," Fred Weasley said suddenly as he appeared in the room, having toppled out of the fireplace a few seconds before.

"Yeah, besides they'll probably be going to some fancy place where we'll just end up embarrassing you somehow," George said good naturedly as he followed his twin into the room.

"You just got home, I don't want to just _abandon_ you," Mrs. Weasley said in an appalled tone.

Rolling his blue eyes George said, "I assure you mom, you're not abandoning us."

"Forge is right mother dearest," Fred agreed, "it's obvious that you want to go to a nice restaurant for once so why let us spoil it?"

"But there still isn't enough seats," she replied weakly.

Having listened to the hole conversation Harry and Hermione shared a quick glance of understanding before she said, "Harry and I won't be going. This is a family thing. Without us to worry about there are enough seats for the Delacours, you, Mr. Weasley, bill, Charlie, Ginny and Ron."

"You want me to leave you two here?" she asked with a terrified tone.

"Just go," Harry agreed, "We'll stay with Fred and George."

"Yeah! We'll have loads of fun," Fred agreed, "staying inside the house of course."

She studied them for a moment before saying, "Fine, but I will not leave you without food."

"We know how to cook mother," George said with a sigh.

"No you don't," Ginny said as she walked into the room.

"Harry does," Hermione said with a laugh.

Everyone in the room stared at Harry with surprise. His cheeks turned a bright shade of red and he asked, "How do you know that?"

"I woke up early one morning and smelled the food being cooked but the Dursleys were still all asleep. I imagine they made you be their little slave boy and cook everything for them, right?" she asked.

Harry simply shrugged and he said, "I do what I can."

"See! Harry can cook so we'll be fine!" George exclaimed, "Go get ready to go and be gone!"

It took some arguing but soon the twins, Harry and Hermione were the only ones left in the Burrow. The four of them sat at the table, just staring at each other.

"So," Fred said after a moment, "who wants to go into muggle London and get pizza?"

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**Authors Note**

Here's chapter four! Still not much happening…I know! No need to growl at me! Yes I am still updating this story even though I have another one in the works. I'm going to attempt to do the impossible with me: keep two stories on the go at once! Yeah the end of this was kind of just rambling on for no reason but whatever!

Next chapter we get to see the wedding and so on!

Please review, good or bad comments. I don't mind being HELPFULLY ummm…flamed? (haha I can't think of the right word right now…). I can't stand how some people just go on about how much they hate the story and how it should be removed and so on but when people point out things that are wrong or don't work out right I don't mind…as long as they do it in a slightly respectful way.

Anyways now that I've got that off my chest…

See you all next time

**_Krystal Lily Potter_**


	5. Bits of This and That

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Five:_** Bits of This and That  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure, Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the six items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least dangerous ones of all that he must face. Can he bring back the light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes such as death (no this story does not contain any sex so if people are looking for that then I'm sorry to disappoint you)

Just so you know there are no "couples" in this story, no major romance or anything else…possibly a little flirting and so on but nothing huge so no one has to worry about H/Hr or H/G and all that nice stuff because I don't care about it…

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"_**There is no use worrying about things over which you have no control, and if you have control, you can do something about them instead of worrying."**_

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_He walked through the old house, searching for the object again. He got back to the room with the same dark thoughts of Albus Dumbledore flowing through his mind. _

_Suddenly he stopped moving and his eyes rested on the item in front of him. It was hidden behind layers of grimy items, but because of its luster it was quite visible when concentrated on. Gold in color with a small seal embroidered in it, and not a single spec of dust on it (even though it had been in that exact same spot for years), it was exactly what Tom Riddle had been looking for._

_With a look of greed, he slowly reached forward and took the item into his hand, when a flash of quick and furious pain flew through his body. With an agonizing yell he dropped the item to the ground and it rolled off to the side of the room. It rolled until the seal on it was clearly seen: an eagle with a light outline of bronze and blue…_

_Suddenly the scene switched and instead of seeing Tom Riddle in the reflections of the item was watching from a third person point of view. In front of him sat a young woman with waves of bright red hair and intense emerald green eyes. Harry knew who she was, but it was what she was doing that interested him. _

There were several books actually levitating around of her, but her wand was no where inside. She waved her hand and a page flipped without her even looking at it. He caught sight of one of the books she was reading and saw the word 'horcrux' on it. She then started writing things down in a small book in her lap. She then looked in Hogwarts: A History and wrote something else down before the image faded away.

Harry was once again seeing through the eyes of a person, standing in front of Lord Voldemort. The look of loathing in his eyes told Harry that in this vision he was seeing through his own eyes, not anyone else's. They stared at each other, raised their wands and a bright flash of bright green light was all he saw. In the background he heard someone screaming.

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Harry woke up quickly, his scar was searing with pain and tears blurred his vision. Pressing a hand to his forehead he felt the lightning bolt scar on his forehead burn against his hand.

Pushing the covers off and throwing his feet over the side of the bed he stood up and rubbed his eyes. After grabbing his glasses off of the bedside table he glanced at the watch he had left on his wrist. It was only 3:30 in the morning.

With a frustrated sigh he straightened the rumbled white t-shirt he was wearing and quietly padded out of Fred and George's old room. He quietly made his way down the stairs and to the kitchen. Pouring himself a glass of water he drank it back in one gulp then set the glass down in the sink where the clothes would clean it in the morning. He then sat down at the table and put his head into his hands and just sat in thought.

He didn't know what his dream meant. He knew each scene he saw but he didn't know how they linked to one another. The first one he saw Riddle searching, and finding the item that once belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw; the second one he saw his mother doing research about horcruxes and the third was him facing Voldemort.

"She knew," Harry whispered after a moment, "somehow she knew about the horcruxes, or at least suspected it."

"Harry?"

He turned around to see Ginny Weasley looking at him with tired but curious brown eyes. They just stared at each other for a moment as an uncomfortable silence fell between them. Finally Harry broke his faze and said, "Nothing important, I better get back to bed."

He got up and walked past her. She sighed sadly and said, "is this the way it's always going to be Harry? Uncomfortable? I mean after all of this is over you'll still be my—"

Harry cut her off and said, "No Ginny. Don't you understand, with me this will never be over? Even if Voldemort does die my life will never be normal or safe, alright?"

Her eyes flashed angrily but he didn't notice because he still had his back to his. In a tone that reminded Harry strongly of Mrs. Weasley she said, "Oh but you'll let Ron and Hermione blindly follow you into all of these dangers but not me? Who says I want to be left out of the loop?"

He whipped around and glared at her angrily before saying, "Don't argue with me Ginny. Ron and Hermione have been with me through this since the beginning and they choose to come; I don't want them to follow me into danger when I walk into it blindly but you know what they insist on it—"

"And so do I!"

"No," he said simply, "Ginny I know you're going to hate to hear me say this, but as nasty of a hex as you can throw, you're not ready to fight the way we do. It's Ron, Hermione and I, no one else can really keep up with us, not even you."

She continued to glare at him and said, "Well maybe if you'd give me a chance."

"How many ways do you want me to say no? You are not ready to face what we do, and don't you dare point out fifth year because in the grand scheme of things the Department of Mysteries was a smudge compared to what these next months are going to be like. So Ginerva Weasley, my final answer is no to if you can help us, but my answer to if everything is going to be uncomfortable and everything around us for now on is yes."

Ginny opened her mouth to shout at him but no words came out. He stared at her for a moment waiting for her to start raging at him, but when she didn't he quickly walked past her and back up the stairs. He didn't even notice the angry look on her face or the tears of frustration that streaked down her cheeks.

---------------------------------------------

After getting three hours of much needed sleep Harry was awoken by Mrs. Weasley entering the room and opening the curtains, allowing the bright sunlight to penetrate his eyes. He groaned angrily but put a smile on his face as he said, "Morning Mrs. Weasley."

"Good morning Harry," she replied in a monotone voice. When the Weasleys had returned from their dinner with the Delacours Molly had been in a particularly vicious mood and none of those who had stayed home dared ask what was wrong. But curiousity was eating ihm alive so he finally asked, "How was dinner last night?"

With a look that strongly reminded Harry of the way Ginny glared at him last night she said, "Those Delacours think they are so much better than us! First that ghastly woman mentions our clothes and how they weren't as expensive as hers were (Mrs. Delacour hadn't actually said anything, she just looked the clothes over with an unreadable look, as Ron later on told Harry.), then she comments about Ronald's eating behavior and how Ginny physically looks much younger than she really is. I wish this wedding wasn't happening!"

She seemed to come to her senses and realized that Harry was staring at her with a look of shock on his face to actually hear her say that aloud. An ashamed look crossed her features and she said, "Well you best get ready for breakfast, you're going to need all your energy for later.

He stared at her retreating form and sighed; he then dug through his trunk and found some clothes he would wear for the time being. He quickly walked out of his room and towards the bathroom. On his way in he bumped into Hermione who said, "It's going to be a hectic day."

"I know," Harry agreed with a sigh.

"You'd better hurry and take a shower so that Ron can too, you two need to go to the Ministry for ten," she informed him.

"Why?" he blurted out with surprise.

Giving him an amused look she replied, "Don't you remember what Mr. Weasley told you last night after they returned home? He told you that he was taking you and Ron today to—"

"Get our apparition licenses! I forgot all about that!" he exclaimed.

Her expression softened and Hermione said, "You had a nightmare last night didn't you?"

"Well my scar hurt but I wouldn't really call it a nightmare…just a very odd dream," Harry replied.

She nodded then said, "We'll talk later, go get a shower, you need it."

Rolling his eyes he ruffled her wet hair and said, "Whatever you say oh brainy one." He walked into the bathroom and shut the door to her amused laughter.

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"I think I'm going to die," was the first thing that came out of Ron's mouth when they enter the ministry at quarter to ten.

"We've been studying and practicing for months Ron," Harry replied, "besides it could be worse, we could be home getting those last minute preparations for the wedding done."

"Harry's right," Arthur agreed, "with the wedding at two everyone is near panic. At least this way we avoid that."

"To a point," Harry said while nodding into the corridor they just passed. The ministry was in nothing short of chaos with people running around; parchment flying everywhere, maps all over the place, and the walls were covered in Wanted posters. If Voldemort had not been the case of all of this Harry would have laughed aloud.

No one took any notice to the three of them as they passed through the corridors to where they were scheduled to take their apparating exam.

"Hello Johanssen," Mr. Weasley said as they approached a desk.

"Arthur," the tired looking man replied with a nod, "what can I do for you today?"

"I'm here for two apparating exams."

"Two of them? I thought you already had your license," Johanssen joked with him. His tone quickly became sober though as he said, "I've been putting a lot of over time in. So many people are coming to get their apparating licenses that it's not even funny!"

"They need a way to get away," Harry spoke up suddenly, turning all attention to him.

"Goodness! Harry Potter!" Johanssen exclaimed with delighted surprise, "what an honor! And you're one of the two who will be doing the test?"

"Yes, along with Ron," Harry replied while gesturing towards his red headed friend.

A wide smile appeared on the older man's face as he stood up, revealing his very tall figure. He motioned towards the door and said, "This way please, it should only take a minute…"

Harry and Ron gave each other a look of encouragement as they both walked into the room with Mr. Weasley not far behind them.

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Hermione twisted her hair around her finger as she waited in the room she and Ginny were sharing. Her dress robes were already out and ready for the wedding and she was already cleaned up so now she could do nothing but wait to hear from her two best friends. She was terrified for both Harry and Ron.

The door opened and closed again but she didn't pay attention, her deep brown eyes remained unfocused, staring at some unknown spot a few feet in front of her. It was only when she heard Ginny clear her throat that Hermione noticed she wasn't alone.

"Oh, I didn't even hear you come in," she said in a slightly airy tone.

The red headed girl giggled and said, "You sound like Luna." She laughed louder at the glare she received from her friend.

"I'm just thinking," Hermione replied in a snappish tone.

"When are you not Hermione?" Ginny replied while opening her closet door. She quickly pulled out the beautiful golden gown Fleur had chosen for her bridesmaids and set it gently on her bed beside the elder girl.

Hermione smiled lightly before saying, "I'm just hoping Harry and Ron pass their apparation exams."

Ginny frowned lightly at the mention of Harry and went around the room, searching for her jewelry that Fleur had given her for the wedding. Her flaming red hair was already in a fancy twist at the top of her head, her nails were perfectly manicured and her makeup was finished, all she needed to do was get dressed but Molly had told her not to do so until just before the wedding so that the dress wouldn't be ruined. That golden gown as well as the jewelry she was supposed to wear with it was the most expensive things that Ginny owned at the moment.

Hermione noticed her frown and said, "Are you still upset with Harry breaking up with you?"

"No, I was never really upset with him, I was more or less just frustrated because I knew it was because of his noble personality, but I saw him last night, he was getting a drink downstairs when I went down. He told me that he didn't want to get back together with him and made it sound as if he meant forever, then he said he didn't want me helping you three with whatever trouble you get into this year. It's just not fair!"

Biting her lip Hermione knew why Harry said no, because he wasn't going back to Hogwarts. _And neither are Ron and I_, she thought dimly.

"Ginny, you know how Harry is," she said, "he doesn't want anyone else to get hurt or die…"

"But you and Ron are staying with him!" Ginny shot back.

"Please don't get snappy with me; I'm just trying to explain to you. You say that you're just as involved because of Riddle's possession of you in your first year, but Ginny you were unconscious through the entire ordeal in the Chamber of Secrets so you can't really count that as being really involved. I'm not doubting your abilities or anything, I'm just pointing out the fact that you really haven't been involved with fighting against Voldemort as much. The time for Ron and I to turn back and not help Harry has passed, but it hasn't for you Ginny and everyone knows it. I know I'm probably not making much sense to you, but you're not ready for this."

"Harry implied the same thing," Ginny said sadly.

"Then you should believe it," Hermione replied.

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Molly Weasley was torn between hatred for the Delacour family, especially after last night's ordeal at the restaurant, and happiness for her oldest child. Still she desperately wished that Bill would have chosen a woman…more to her taste than Fleur.

None of this was going the way she had thought it would. When she pictured Bill's wedding it was with a nice young woman who would simply like to be a stay home wife to watch over the many children they would have. The wedding would be held in their gardens, of course, and she would get along famously with the bride's family.

Though fleur was a nice young woman she was fiercely independent and had a craving for adventure flowing through her veins. The wedding would be in a beautiful clearing not far from there and Molly did not like her parents at all.

_I am being selfish_, Molly thought again for the umpteenth time. _My son is happy, and that should be all that matters_.

But Molly Weasley wasn't used to getting her way. The only time anyone didn't listen to her or take her advice was her younger sister Sarah.

It was his aunt that Bill got his spirit from.

Now, as Molly finished putting her dress on she was ready to face the travesty of the wedding. There was only one thing missing: her husband, her youngest son and his best friend.

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"I think I'm going to die," Ron said as he followed Harry and his father away from the Ministry of Magic.

"Why?" Harry asked his friend, the grin on his face never once leaving.

"From shock! I bloody passed!"

All three of them laughed when Mr. Weasley stopped walking and said, "Molly will murder me but I believe this deserves a treat, perhaps a butterbeer while we're here?"

Ron looked like he was in heaven, it had been forever since he had taste butterbeer. He nodded his head quickly, causing his red hair to fly everywhere.

"Or maybe a haircut would be more suiting," Mr. Weasley joked.

"Hey! Harry has long hair too!" Ron said defensively.

"It's not nearly as bad as yours," Harry shot back.

"Now boys, no need to get in a fight over hair," Mr. Weasley said.

"Lets just go get that butterbeer and get home before mum murders us for being late," Ron said.

"It wasn't our fault. We didn't know there was going to be such a huge wait," Harry pointed out.

"Trust me Harry, with mum it wouldn't matter if the minister himself was speaking to us about how he figured out a way to defeat you-know-who if we were late," Ron replied.

"That is all too true," Arthur agreed.

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"Where have you been?" Molly Weasley shouted when the three of them arrived home. Although looking rather nice in her clothing she still had the ferocity of a tiger stalking it's prey as she stared at Harry, Ron and Mr. Weasley.

"I'm sorry Molly, we didn't know there was going to be a long waiting line—" Arthur tried to explain to her but she quickly cut him off.

"I don't care if the Minister himself was telling you of a way to destroy you-know-who (Ron sent Harry an amused, smug look). GET READY NOW!" She roared.

Harry and Ron ran upstairs as fast as they could. On the way up they ended up bumping into Hermione, who let out a squeak as Harry quickly dragged her with them.

"What was that about?" she asked once they were in the safety of Ron's room.

"Mrs. Weasley was going to kill us," Harry informed her.

"Because we were late getting back," Ron finished.

"Did you guts pass?" Hermione asked, her bright brown eyes filling with curiousity.

"With flying colors," Harry replied.

"Colors don't fly…"

"It's a muggle expression Ron. But yeah, after that I had to wait for Ron…"

"Of course they let the famous Harry Potter through first," Ron muttered before pushing those jealous thoughts out of his mind, "I passed too, once I got in."

"I am so proud of you two!" Hermione cried out and gave both of them a hug, "Now we don't have to find transportation. We can talk about this later though, you two have to get dressed and make yourselves decent or I'm sure Molly will skin you both."

She and Harry left Ron alone to change and headed down the stairs, her destination: Ginny's room, his: Fred and George's old room.

"Mrs. Weasley isn't the only female Weasley who is angry at you," Hermione noted after a moment.

Harry groaned and said, "About Ginny…"

"I understand, you don't want to bring her into all of this," she interrupted, "it's understandable, and I tried to explain that to her too, but you know how stubborn she gets."

"Yeah," Harry agreed. He desperately didn't want the conversation to stay on the track it was on so he said, "Has Mrs. Weasley been like this all day?"

"Yes," Hermione said sadly, "I don't think she's thrilled about Bill marrying Fleur."

"Why should it matter what she thinks? I mean apparently my grandfather on my mother's side didn't like my father but he and my mother still got married," Harry thought aloud.

"The Weasleys are so closely knit together though," she replied, "and you now how Molly is…"

"Yes," Harry agreed, "Today is certainly going to be interesting."

And it would prove to be none less than Harry thought it would be…

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**  
Author's Note**

Yes another boring chapter, I am sorry for this but I write what I think needs to be written. I apologize for the slowness of it all.

Ok now, who really wants to see the wedding? Because I don't really want to write it. I was thinking of maybe skipping to the reception…so I can really get this story kicked off! Because what's after that is the interesting parts! See it's things like this that I'd like the reviewers to help me with…make suggestions and stuff.

Well please tell me what you think. I can't remember if I said in the last chapter that this one would be more exciting…if I did sorry that I unintentionally lied. I won't promise an exciting one for next chapter but I DO promise that it'll be the BEGINNING of more interesting chapters to come!

Remember to review, I'd really appreciate it, it lets me know that my story is worth writing. Writing for yourself is a very satisfying thing but when it comes to fanfiction I think reviews are important, it makes me a better writer in the long run.

Well I'll see you all next time!

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	6. The Great Escape

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Six:_** The Great Escape  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least dangerous ones of all that he must face. Can he bring back the light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes such as death (no this story does not contain any sex so if people are looking for that then I'm sorry to disappoint you)

Just so you know there are no "couples" in this story, no major romance or anything else…possibly a little flirting and so on but nothing huge so no one has to worry about H/Hr or H/G and all that nice stuff because I don't care about it…

Also it might look like I'm leaning more towards H/Hr (I am a bigger fan of that but I'm trying to keep this more canon then anything) but all that's between them is friendship, ok?

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"**_All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing."  
_**

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The wedding was, needless to day, one of the most beautiful spectacles that Harry had ever witnessed. Everything was decorated perfectly and it fit what Fred and George had told him was Fleur's dream. Bill had looked so nervous but, despite the scars that Greyback had given him, he looked just as hansom as always. Fleur had been a site for sore eyes, most of the men present were drooling over her. It was Hermione's constant glares at the men around her and her comments about one-track minded men that made Harry not do the same as the rest. All of the Weasleys were participating in the wedding so Harry had to stay behind Hermione, who was acting like her normal self in a twist of emotions that made his head hurt.

Mrs. Weasley had been sitting in front of them, and she had been torn between sobbing and seething, so for trying to reassure emotional women it was quite a terrifying ordeal for Harry.

Once the wedding was over Fleur and Bill went for photos and everyone else was aloud to relax…for about a half an hour before they had to go to the reception hall and help get all of the food and everything else finished. By this time Mrs. Weasley was in a ferocious mood, verbally lashing out at everyone. Simply to avoid her Harry had willingly gone along to help Ginny put the plates and fancy glasses on the head table.

"Once this is over," Hermione said to Harry from her seat beside him at one of the tables, "we'll leave."

"We should go before everyone leaves," he replied quietly, his eyes slowly gazing around the room to make sure that no one was listening to them, "because you know that if _any_ of the Weasleys find out that we're leaving they'll fight to the death to make us stay."

"It won't be hard to get away, I don't think so at least," she said after a moment of thought, "once everyone gets dancing and…well when it comes to weddings many of the adults will most likely be intoxicated ("I'm doubting it's just the adults," Harry said quietly) so that should make it twice as easy."

Harry was about to say something else to her when they heard clapping. Turning quickly they both saw Fleur and Bill entering the room, arm in arm, with wide smiles on their faces. Both of them politely clapped as they sat in the middle of the head table. Beside Bill sat all of the men in the wedding party and beside Fleur sat all of the women in their delicate gold dresses.

Hermione commented that none of the parents were at the table and both looked around until they located Mr. and Mrs. Weasley seated side by side across from Mr. and Mrs. Delacours. Just by the look on Mrs. Weasley's face both could tell that she was miserable with the seating arrangements, but Mr. Weasley seemed honestly interested on what Mr. Delacour was speaking to him about.

Dinner was, needless to say, an enriching experience for Harry. Hermione had to talk him through some of the dishes that were strictly French while there were some wizarding foods that he was sure were anything but edible.

"I'd rather starve than eat that," he said with disgust as he poked the jelly-like substance.

"I wouldn't be picky if I were you," Hermione advised him warningly, "we're not going to have Hogwarts cooking stuffed into our bags when we're traveling."

"I could always stuff Dobby into my truck and shrink it," he joked before he could stop himself. Before she even said anything he wanted to hit himself for saying such a thing in front of her, the founder of the all but failed S.P.E.W.

"Harry James Potter," she snipped, causing the people sitting around them to stare at them with interest, "how dare you make a comment like that! I'll have you know…"

Hermione, much to the amusement of everyone listening, lectured Harry about the treatment of house-elves through the meal and dessert. He was very close to hitting his head on the table when Charlie suddenly stood up and got everyone's attention. He made a speech about Bill and how he admired his goof of an older bother, the story about Bill and how he ended up on top of a tree with all of his clothes missing was an incredibly amusing one and finally he mentioned how he was impressed with how Fleur, the first time he had seen her, handled a dragon.

"Keep that task in mind Fleur," he joked, "you're going to need it when dealing with the Weasleys."

Many others made speeches; even Fleur's delicate looking little sister braved the crowd and spoke about her elder sister in high regards.

The dance wouldn't start for a while, it gave the bride and groom a chance to mingle with their guests. Harry could hear Fleur's giggles and Bill's loud laughter coming closer to the place where he and Hermione still sat. Both of them opted not to move from their spot but to wait there for Ron to show up. Their eyes would dart around nervously then one would look at a clock, tell the other the time, and vice versa.

Finally though the newly wedded couple came up to them and Bill said, "Thanks for coming, it means a lot to me you know."

"Yes, 'aving zee famous 'Arry Potter 'ere is certainly a treat," Fleur agreed while shooting him a large smile. Her long blond hair was held up in an elegant bun on her head, with a few wisps surrounding her face and her long, white dress seemed to glitter in the light as she moved around. Harry had to admit to himself, she did look very beautiful.

"And you too 'Ermione," she added, but not as an after thought. She had an honest sincerity to her voice that only she could pull off.

"It was a beautiful wedding. You did a wonderful job at planning it," Hermione replied with a smile.

"It was zee 'ardest task I 'ave ever done," she joked.

Harry chuckled and said, "You certainly deserve the Tri-wizard cup now."

Fleur laughed with him then said, "Where is Ronald?"

"We're waiting for him to find us," Harry replied.

"He just sort of vanished after dinner was over," Hermione added.

"Oh he probably migrated to the kitchen to get more food," Charlie said as he walked by.

All of them laughed at the joke and the newly married couple continued on, speaking to their guests.

Harry was glad to see that there were still things to be happy about in the world, even though the darkness seemed to take hold of the wizarding world more and more.

Unfortunately those thoughts quickly made his happiness evaporate. His emerald eyes flickered towards his watch. It was 8 o'clock at night now.

---------------------------------------------

Ron had been found, in the kitchens exactly like Charlie had predicted. Harry and Hermione told Ron their plan to leave maybe an hour into the dance, that way they would have time to escape from the Burrow before any of the other Weasleys returned home.

"What do we do until then?" he asked the two of them.

Harry looked at Hermione expectantly. She looked from him to Ron and then said, "Well that's painfully obvious. We join in the festivities."

"I hate dancing," Ron muttered.

"I happen to like it," she said slowly, her eyes narrowing slightly.

Now it was Harry's turn to look from one to the other. The tension in their air was thick and heavy so he said, "the lights are dimming."

His friends stopped their glaring match (actually Hermione had been glaring, Ron had just been looking at her nervously) and looked up to see that he was right. The fancy torches that had lit the room slowly turned off and the only thing lighting the room were flying colorful orbs, which Harry quickly distinguished as fairies.

Many of the tables moved out of the way magically as the first song started. Hermione gasped as Fleur and Bill started dancing to it, causing both young men to look at her oddly. Her cheeks turned pink and she said, "This is a muggle song, I've heard it before."

"Muggles listen to this stuff? Where's all of the—" Ron proceeded to ask about some instruments that Harry had never heard of in his life.

"Muggles don't have those types of instruments Ronald," she said with a monotone voice, "honestly there are so many purebloods that are completely obvious to even simple things in the muggle world…"

The song finished and the next began, where the daughter danced with her father. Harry noted how similar weddings were in both worlds. He doubted that someone like Draco Malfoy would believe that muggles actually had traditions like this too.

Soon more upbeat music started and the dance floor got crowded. Ron moaned and groaned about getting up to dance, and Hermione became fed up with him.

"Now I understand why Padma left at the Yule Ball," she snapped viciously at him. Her eyes turned to Harry and became much softer and almost pleading, "Please Harry will you come with me?"

He sighed and shrugged before pushing himself off of the chair. He didn't want her angry with both him and Ron, that would just make their trip miserable, plus he didn't see anything wrong with dancing with his best female friend.

Ron's eyes widened with shock and for a moment a look of jealousy passed through them and he said, "fine then, you two go and behave the rest of those lunatics."

"He just doesn't like to dance," Harry said as they approached the dance floor.

"Neither do you," Hermione pointed out.

"Yeah well…" he didn't really have a point to make. He just shrugged and sent her a helpless look.

"Putting out a fire before it grows too much to be tamed," she said, speaking about her arguments with Ron, "a smart move on your part."

Later on, when a slow song came on, Hermione conned Harry into dancing with her. He had wanted to go sit down but hesitantly gave in. He stepped on her feet a couple times but the friends just laughed it off, and Hermione started showing him a few of the more basic steps to save her poor feet.

While they were trying to suppress their laughter of Harry's terrible attempts at dancing someone tapped his shoulder and asked in a very distinct accent, "may I cut in?"

Harry didn't need to turn to see who it was, and a surprised look appeared on Hermione's face as she said, "Victor…"

Sure enough there, standing in front of them, was the famous Victor Krum.

---------------------------------------------------

Harry sat down beside Ron, who had a sour look on his face. He glanced at his friend for a moment before saying, "having fun?"

Harry shrugged and said, "I'm a terrible dancer."

Ron snorted and said, "I thought you came to that conclusion in fourth year."

Shrugging once again Harry continued to stare at people around the room and purposefully avoid Ron's blue gaze.

"Where's Hermione?"

"Dancing."

"With who?"

Harry didn't answer. He finally looked up and Ron and said, "Well speaking of fourth year, you'll never believe who we ran into."

"Who?" Ron asked suspiciously. He wasn't stupid, and as Harry mentioned fourth year, and dancing, he was slowly putting two and two together.

"Krum."

"Bloody hell!" Ron yelled angrily. He continued to rage as he finally located Hermione, who was dancing with Krum.

"Why's she dancing with him? He's a bloody evil git," Ron said through clenched teeth.

"No he's not," Harry replied, "I don't think he ever was."

"He was Karkaroff's lap boy-"

Ignoring the crude term Harry said, "You can't judge someone by where they went to school Ron. He's not an evil person, I can feel it."

Ron was about to say something back when little Gabrielle Delacour wandered over. She had been only eleven the last time Harry had seen her but now she was fourteen years old and just as gorgeous as her older sister.

"Hi Harry," she said shyly, "I'm Gabrielle, Fleur's sister, I'm not sure if you remember me…"

"Yes," he replied, "I saved you out of the lake. Still seems that you're just as shy."

She giggled and said, "Well, I was wondering if you wanted to dance with me."

"I'm a terrible dancer," he replied honestly.

"That's ok, so am I," she said with a small laugh. Turning to Ron the blond haired girl said, "And I remember you too. You helped save me. After Harry would you like to dance with me?"

Ron was about to protest and say that he didn't dance but his eyes glued on to Hermione and Krum again and he said, "Sure, sounds fun."

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Finally Harry was able to sit down. After he was done dancing with Gabrielle Ginny had cornered him and he reluctantly danced with her. She had been standing too close to him for comfort and he had stumbled over her feet even worse than he had with Hermione. By the end of a single dance she seemed very bitter with him.

He took a sip out of the class of pumpkin juice he had poured himself and glanced down at his watch. He nearly spit the juice out over the table when he saw what time it was. Their plan at been to leave at 10 o'lock so that no one would catch them, but it was already 11:30.

He shot up out of his seat and made wild motions towards his watch when he saw Hermione staring at him. Her brows furrowed with confusion for a moment before she mouthed 'what time is it?'

'11:30,' he mouthed back.

She gasped and backed away from Victor quickly. He looked at her quizzically before she mumbled some quick excuse and bolted to where Harry was.

"Where's Ron?" she said breathlessly.

"Over there," he replied while nodding to where Ron and Gabrielle were dancing.

Hermione followed his gaze and for a moment a hurt look appeared on her features before she said, "we need to leave, now."

"I know," he said. When Ron was facing them they both motioned wildly before he finally excused himself and walked towards them.

"What?" he asked darkly.

"It's 11:30," Harry told him. The effect was exactly of those words are exactly the same as they had been with Hermione. The three of them looked at each other with panic before Ron said, "we have to leave _now_."

The three of them headed towards the door but were intercepted by Bill, "were do you three think you're going?"

"Home?" Ron suggested sheepishly.

"Without someone to watch you? I think not," Bill replied, "Mom would have a fit."

"Come on Bill, look at mom and dad, they're having so much fun for once," Ron pointed out while motioning to their parents. It was true, Molly looked at much more ease than she had before, but Harry strongly suspected it had to do with a light amount of alcohol that she probably wasn't even aware that she had consumed.

"Do you really want to bug them?" Ron added.

Reluctantly Bill sighed and said, "Are you going to apparate right to the house?"

"Right outside the wards, yes," Harry piped up. Bill gave the two young men skeptical looks.

"I'll be with them," Hermione said in as mature of a voice as she could muster, which was the one that strongly reminded Harry of McGonagall, "So you don't have to worry about them doing anything stupid."

Finally Bill's though façade faded and he said, "fine, but someone will be home in about a half an hour, understand?"

"Of course," all three of them said together with wide smiles.

Bill was about to say something else when Charlie stumbled over to him, clearly intoxicated. He threw his arms around his older brother and said, "Hey Bill, bet I can out dance you like I used to when we were younger."

The three friends thanked their blessings that, after much taunting by Charlie, Bill finally vanished away from the door. The three of them took off as fast as they could so that they wouldn't be intercepted again. But in their haste they didn't notice a pair of deep brown eyes staring at their retreating figures curiously.

---------------------------------------------

"Only bring what you need," Hermione said suddenly.

"Well we don't need our Hogwarts books," Ron said as they all flew into the house. All of them dashed up the stairs and towards the rooms they had been staying in.

"We need information about curses, counter curses, plants, transfiguration, poisons, cures, and then we need books about the founders," Hermione reminded him.

"We only need one copy of each though," Harry agreed, "We'll bring yours Hermione, since they are in the best condition."

She nodded before saying, "Give me your potions book Harry."

"What?"

"You're potions book, the one that belonged to Snape," she explained, "as much as I hate to admit it, there are probably a lot of shortcuts in there that we could use."

"I don't have it anymore, I left it in the Room of Requirement," he said after a moment. Much to his surprise she cursed under her breath.

"Go get your clothes packed," she told the two boys, "don't bring more then you have to though, because even though we're shrinking our trunks there might be chance that we'll lose them."

Both of them nodded and rushed into their rooms. Harry quickly got changed into clothes more suitable for traveling before throwing items into his trunk. After a few moments he found his broom amongst the items he had shrunk. His green eyes stared at it for a moment as he placed it, the invisibility cloak and the marauders map into the trunk. He wasn't quite sure why it was so important to him to bring the map, it only worked for Hogwarts, but it didn't matter.

After making sure he had what he needed (he had discarded several items of clothing that were too small for him and were only taking up space) he tossed all of his books onto his bed. For a moment he looked over all of the books he had and a pang of remorse went through him. He truly did want to go back to Hogwarts, deep in his heart he had already admitted that, but there were things more important in the world than the end of his education.

Realizing that he was wasting precious time he closed his trunk and shrunk it, setting it in his coat pocket. He rushed down the stairs, and met Ron on the way down. Hermione was the last one down.

"Wait," Ron said as his friends rushed towards the door to leave the wards so that they could apparate.

"What is it now Ronald?" Hermione hissed; she was still in a frightfully bad mood with him.

"We need to leave a note for mom, just to prove that we were here and that we weren't captured or anything," he explained.

Her eyes softened as she said, "Yes, we probably should. They're going to be worried about us as it is."

It took only a few moments but they quickly wrote up a letter and each of them signed their names at the bottom, for the Weasleys to recognize that they had all agreed in their decision to leave together.

Without a backwards glance the three of them walked out to the yard and deep into the woods, just passed where the apparation wards. Finally they stopped and stared at each other.

"This is it guys, if you want to back out now is the time," Harry said to them after a moment of silence.

"Our time to back out has come and gone Harry," Hermione said and took his hand, "we had better go."

"Go where?"

All three of them whipped around to see Ginny staring at them. They could hear her father yelling for her not far off.

Harry nudged Ron suddenly and mouthed, 'grab my arm.' Ron shot him a confused look but followed the instructions quickly. Harry squeezed Hermione's hand harder, causing her to look at him with confusion as well.

"Well?" Ginny asked angrily.

"We're sorry Ginny," Harry said and concentrated on the place he wanted to go, he knew it was risky but it was the only way to get out of there without Ginny knowing where they were going: he apparated with both Ron and Hermione.

Ginny yelled for her father after the shock wore off and he rushed towards her, wondering what was going on. Back at the house Molly found the note the three had left and let out a terrible shriek torn between horror and anger.

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**_Author's Note_**

So how was this chapter? It seems a little choppy to me but now the story is going to get interesting, promise!

First of all I'd like to thank FreedomStar and pupdawg66 (sorry if I spelt your names wrong or anything, ff.n won't open so I can't look at them) for being faithful readers and reviewers! I really appreciate it!

So please review! Like I said many times before I really would appreciate it. As happy as I am with how this story is turning out reviews do help me feel willing to update. It's always nice to know that your work is appreciated! I'll take criticism too, I like to work out what I'm doing wrong! (Yes I know sometimes words will be wrong and some punctuation will be wrong but that's because I type so fast then I really don't feel like going back and reading it over again.

**Note:** Sorry about the little mix up in my summary…its not very important but I said that they were going after six horcruxes…that's wrong…they only need to find four of them. The first two were the diary and the Ring and the third piece of Voldemort's soul still remains in him, so they have to find four, not six. I didn't need to point this out but I find errors like that annoying and that obvious errors like that decrease MY interest in stories.

Well thanks to the people who did review! Hope you liked this chapter!

**_Krystal Lily Potter  
_**


	7. A Place Long Forgotten

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Seven:_** A Place Long Forgotten  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least dangerous ones of all that he must face. Can he bring back the light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes such as death (no this story does not contain any sex so if people are looking for that then I'm sorry to disappoint you)

Just so you know there are no "couples" in this story, no major romance or anything else…possibly a little flirting and so on but nothing huge so no one has to worry about H/Hr or H/G and all that nice stuff because I don't care about it…

* * *

"_**It's your life…and it's ending one minute at a time."**_

V

* * *

The people of Godric's Hallow all knew how to keep a secret, it was something every one of them, even down to the smallest child, was proud of. Of course there was no reason to keeps secrets from one another, but when outsiders came all of the residences of this small village became tight lipped and refused to give much information.

One time, a few years before, a young business man came into the village, looking for a place to build a cottage on for him family to come and live in during the summer. He had found the perfect lot; the backyard was large and ran down to the crystal clear river that ran though Godric's Hallow. It was close to the woods, but had a nice fence around it, and the house itself was beautiful, except for a couple small flaws: the windows were all broken; the door looked like, if hit hard enough, it would crumble to dust, and the house itself was a mess.

Still, the young man had been interested enough to attempt to seek out the owners of the lot to purchase him. He was surprised to be met with coldness from all of the village people. No one spoke of the house, but no one told him why he couldn't have it. It almost seemed like a touchy subject for them. He kept persisting though and finally he got the answer he didn't want to here. He had been right; the house was a touchy subject for many of the people, because two of their own had been murdered in it years before. The property still belonged to their family, so it was impossible to sell unless the man wanted to search for the ones who owned it, but he didn't even consider it. After learning that two people had been murdered in there the business man began to despise the house, it gave him the creeps.

He had been gone the next day and never came back.

Yes they were all very proud of their secret keeping abilities. Out of choice they had told the business man half of the truth about that old house to make him leave, but there was nothing wrong with that, they didn't tell the darkest secret they harbored. All of the people knew (even the children) that the man and woman who used to live in that house with their infant son were anything but normal. They had been magical people, literally. They had been murdered by an evil wizard that was terrorizing their world for some reason. No one was quite sure what happened to their young son though.

Yes in Godric's Hallow the people knew how to keep secrets and it was prove time and time again. Every single soul that lived there knew about the wizarding world, even if they didn't have a drop of magical blood running through their veins. All of them were careful with this secret; rarely anyone moved into or left Godric's Hallow. So when a new comer came everyone knew about it, and everyone would watch them and see if they were worthy enough to stay, but no one knew what to do when a teenage boy and his two friends stumbled out of the woods one night. Not because they had come out of the woods, no they had all seen the magical disappearance and reappearance of people before.

The reason they were all surprised was because the boy looked exceptionally like the late James William Potter.

* * *

"Bloody hell!" Ron yelled as the three of them hit the ground. All of them stumbled to their knees, clearly dizzy from what they had just done.

"Harry James Potter!" Hermione exclaimed suddenly, "do you realize how dangerous that was?" She pushed herself off of the ground and glared at the raven haired young man. "Apparating with one person is extremely difficult but two? What if we had splinched? Some people's legs and arms get mixed up with each other you know! That was a very bad idea."

By now Ron had stood up and took a step away from the fuming Hermione, his blue eyes looking from her to Harry, who was still kneeling on the ground.

Her eyes started to soften as she said, "Are you alright Harry?"

"Yeah, just really tired," he replied while looking up at her with glazed over eyes.

She knelt down next to him and said, "You strained yourself in doing that, you shouldn't have."

"She would have heard if I told you were to go," Harry said and attempted to stand up. He swayed a bit but Ron grabbed his shoulder and managed to keep up upright.

"Well this proves that even the Boy-Who-Lived doesn't have limitless power," Ron joked.

Harry grinned weakly at his friend as he attempted to move forward but stumbled again, this time both Ron and Hermione grabbed him.

"Where are we?" the only female of the group asked while looking around. They were in a small clearing surrounded by woods. The sky overhead was pitch black and sprinkled with stars, reminding Harry of the skies over Hogwarts. He suddenly felt very homesick, even though that was where he was going: home.

"I'm not sure of the exact location," Harry said after a pause, "but I aimed for Godric's Hallow."

Once again the two started looking around. A nervous look passed over Ron's face, illuminated only by moonlight, as he said, "But where exactly are we?"

Harry, once he regained his balance, took a step forward but Hermione grabbed his arm and held him back, "Harry we don't know exactly where we are! For all we know we could walk into a lake or go off the side of a cliff. We should wait until morning to move."

"I don't think that's such a good idea. Spending the night in the woods? For all we know there could be werewolves running around in here," Ron pointed out.

"Or very large spiders," Harry added with a grin as he saw Ron's face pale in the light of the moon.

"Don't be stupid," Hermione scowled at them, "the full moon already passed."

"—But there could still giant spiders in here?" Ron asked nervously, his blue eyes darting around the space they were in, as if he could see though the darkness that surrounded them.

Both Harry and Hermione ignored him and concentrated on the task at hand. "Ron's right, I think it is too dangerous to just stay here. We need to at least try to get close to the town."

She bit her lip before saying, "Alright, but which way is it?"

Harry looked around for a moment before saying, "This way." He started east, but after a couple steps he realized that neither of his friends was following him, "coming?"

"How do you know that's the right way?" Ron questioned.

Harry shrugged and said, "I just do, now let's go."

* * *

"What?"

That was the only sentence the normally collected Minerva McGonagall could get out when she heard the news. Her stern grey eyes held shock and her hands curled themselves around the books she was holding violently.

"They're gone," Arthur Weasley repeated, "I don't know where they went but they left last night."

Minerva set her books down on the desk beside her and stared at him warily before asking, "Did they show any signs of planning this in advanced?"

"I guess we didn't really notice," Arthur replied while looking at the ground with shame, "we were all so excited for Bill's wedding."

Minerva stared at him for a few moments before turning her eyes to the portrait that hung behind her desk. The old wizard in it snored softly and she knew that he had something to do with this.

"Last year, before the Death Eaters attacked Hogwarts Potter wasn't in the school and neither was Albus. I asked Potter where they went and what they were doing but he said…he said 'I can't tell you that, Professor.' I tried to get more information out of him, pointing out that it must have been important, what they were doing, and he said 'It is, very, but he didn't want me to tell anyone.' Potter refused to tell me anything. I pointed out that with Albus dead that everything was different, and he said 'I don't think so, Professor Dumbledore told me to never stop following his orders if he died.' And I heard later that he refused to tell the Minister anything as well…"

For the first time in a long time tears of frustration appeared in Minerva McGonagall's eyes and she angrily hit her hand on the desk in front of her. Arthur looked surprised at her reaction and said, "You couldn't have known."

"I should have guessed Potter would do something like this. I should have seen if he knew anything," she said while waving to the sleeping portrait behind her, "I'm positive Albus updated his portrait with memories just before he left with Harry. He would have known something."

"Would he have told you though?"

Minerva remained silent, it was true, she had asked the portrait of Albus Dumbledore a few questions in his awake periods but she had never gotten many answers from her. His favorite response was "Nitwit", "Oddment", "Blubber" and "Tweak." Even after his death Dumbledore was still a curious figure, even if only as a portrait.

She stood up again and went to look out the window at the Hogwarts grounds. It wasn't decided yet whether or not the school would be reopened, but something in her mind and her heart told her that it should. Something in her now realized there was an importance behind everything that was happening…

"I don't know why Potter and his friends left, and I'm not sure if we'll ever find out," Minerva said while staring off into the distance, "but we'll do our best to try and find them even though I doubt we'll be able to keep track of them for long."

"We want our son home," Arthur muttered to himself.

"I know…Arthur," she said in a monotone voice.

* * *

Harry laid in his sleeping bad on the floor of the hotel room they had managed to get. The owner had insisted that they needed more then one room but they had argued that they only need it for the night and Ron and Harry had agreed that Hermione would get the bed and they would sleep on the floor. The attendant hadn't liked the idea but since it was only for a few hours he had agreed to it.

He could hear Hermione's soft breathing above him on the bed and Ron's loud snores from his other side, they were sounds he had become accustom to during the beginning of the summer and even though Ron's snores could be quite terrifying the sounds gave him a sense of peace. It let him know that both his friends were alive and well.

When Harry closed his eyes to sleep though even the breathing of his friends couldn't sooth he storm of questions and memories that raged through his mind. One in particular was bugging him recently, the last time he had seen Snape…

_"Fight back!" Harry screamed at him. "Fight back you cowardly–"_

"_Coward, did you call me, Potter?" shouted Snape, "Your father would never attack me unless it was four on one, what would you call him, I wonder?"_

"_Stupe—"_

"_Blocked again, and again, and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut and your mind closed, Potter" sneered Snape, deflecting the curse once more._

Harry thought about that over and over again. Lately it had been almost maddening to him. At first he had thought that memory was only there, mocking him, but now he thought something different, it was almost if Snape had been warning him…

"Blocked again, and again, and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut and your mind closed," he muttered to himself. It was almost as if Snape was telling him he had to learn Occlumancy and silent spell casting.

He sat up and stared out the small window, thinking. He reached over and grabbed his wand, staring at it for a moment. It was the same as Voldemort's, but it was different.

"I think we can expect great things from you Mr. Potter," that was what Ollivander had said. For a brief moment Harry wondered where the man had vanished to, but soon realized that it would be better to keep his mind as focused as he could on the situation in his mind: Snape.

"I don't understand," he muttered, "Why would Snape warn me? Why would he want me to becoming stronger…"

The questions continued to plague his mind until he fell back to an unsettled sleep, reliving that moment over and over again.

* * *

Whispers circulated around the town that there were three young new comers: two boys and a girl. When Harry, Ron and Hermione left the hotel the next morning they noticed that people seemed to be giving them odd looks. One older woman had even stopped walking, stared at them for a moment, then started sobbing as she rushed away, it confused all of them greatly.

Harry slowly led the way through the small village, his emerald eyes taking in everything as if he was revisiting it. Technically he was, but after an absence of sixteen years he shouldn't remember anything about this place, but as he passed different shops and houses he just knew that he had been there before.

Suddenly Harry stopped walking, causing Ron and Hermione to run into him (they had been looking around and hadn't been paying attention to what he was doing) and all of them nearly stumbled to the ground.

"Bloody hell mate," Ron groaned angrily, "what was that for?"

"This road, the house is down this road," Harry said in a barely audible voice. He began walking down the road in a quicker pace than before.

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked as she jogged to keep up with him. Harry nodded as he turned a corner and stopped. He was standing in front of a house that looked like it had once been magnificent but had started to die over the years, much like the old Riddle house Harry had seen in his dreams. He could hear the clear river running behind the house and admired the large grounds around it.

"This is it isn't it?" Ron muttered in awe as he stared at the house. All the windows were broken, and the door and siding looking like it was starting to rot, but for being abandoned for sixteen years it was in fairly good condition.

"That's the old Potter place," a voice said suddenly, causing all three of them to turn around. There was a middle aged man stared at the house behind them, beside him stood the old lady that they had seen crying earlier, "it holds a special place in all of our hearts."

"Did you know the people who lived here?" Hermione asked after a moment.

"Oh yes, they were nice people, but they were secretive," the man replied while glancing at Hermione, "and if ye wanted to buy the lot yeh'll have to get in touch with the owners."

Ron and Hermione glanced around to Harry who shrugged and Ron asked, "Does the Potter family still own it?"

"Yeah, I think I heard something that the wife's friend is in custody of the property until someone becomes of age…something like that," the man said.

The old woman stared at Harry with wide brown eyes. She took a step forward and said, "You look just like him. Just like James…"

It was only at her words that the man looked at Harry curiously before a look of awe appeared on his face and he said, "Lord…he does!"

"James and Lily Potter were my parents," Harry said after a moment, "my name's—"

"Little Harry Potter!" the old woman cried, "the last time I saw you was when you were a month old."

Harry stared at the teary eyed woman before asking, "Who has the deed to the house now?"

"Ye can go in, it is yers after all," the man said with a moment, "the door opens on its own, the lock doesn't work."

"Who's the one who owned it before I became of age?" Harry asked again.

"One of yer mother's old friends, Alice Bones er something like that," the man said after a moment.

"Alyssa Bones?" he asked.

"That's it."

"Well thank you, but I think we're going to take a look around," Harry said with a forced smile.

"Of course," the old woman said suddenly, "come Brian, we'll leave them alone."

"Yes ma'am," Brian said and followed the old woman away.

There was a pause before Hermione said, "That was awkward."

"Let's go inside," Harry said after a moment and walked towards the house. He carefully climbed the steps, not sure if they would hold his weight. Fortunately they did hold his mass and he slowly turned the knob and opened the door.

He stepped into the foyer and suddenly an overwhelming sense of sadness passed through him and he said, "I'm home…"

* * *

**Author's Note**

I am SO sorry! I know it's been months since I've update but yeah, grade twelve is pretty hetic. When I'm not at school I'm either at work, participating in some activity after school, occasionally hanging out with my friends when I'm not busy, doing homework or sleeping. And right now I've been extra busy helping with decorations for our formal coming up too.

Once again I'm sorry and apologies in advanced if the next chapter isn't up for awhile.

First of all I'd like to say I DO NOT OWN THE LINES THAT ARE IN ITALICS! **Those were taken directly from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (at the end of page 562)**. I don't want people to think I'm plagiarizing, because I think that's wrong.

I was reading through the book again and those lines just struck me, Snape was warning Harry that Voldemort would be able to block the spells just as easily if Harry didn't learn to cast spells silently and if he didn't learn to hide his thoughts. At least that's how I see it. Lets see what JK makes of the situation though.

Maybe I'm just reading way to deep between the lines, but we'll see!

Anyways please review! And if you have any suggestions I'm open to them!

_**Krystal Lily Potter **_


	8. Déjà Vu

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Eight:_** Déjà Vu  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure, Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?

**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes such as death (no this story does not contain any sex so if people are looking for that then I'm sorry to disappoint you)

Just so you know there are no "couples" in this story, no major romance or anything else…possibly a little flirting and so on but nothing huge so no one has to worry about H/Hr or H/G and all that nice stuff because I don't care about it…

* * *

**_"The ones we love never really leave us. They can always be found here in our hearts."_**

* * *

_Lily Potter stared at the house with light distain on her pretty face. She glanced at the excited face of her husband warily but she didn't say anything. He was so excited to finally have a house of his own away from his parents, since it was Potter family tradition to live close to your birth place. _

_Still, as she looked over the exterior of the house she could admit that it was a beautiful place and she loved the backyard, but she couldn't help but find it too…formal. _

"_Come on Lils," James said excitedly, "let's go inside. I got all the furniture in last night."_

"_That was sweet of you," she said with a forced smile. Lily had silently been hoping to be able to choose where things went inside of the house to make it seem less 'stiff' inside. Coming from a home where her mother spent most of her time baking in the kitchen (so there was always a mess around) and her father as a mechanic it was difficult for Lily to become accustom to the organization of the Potter household and now this place. When she had first went to the Potter house she had expected James's room to be the same disaster area that he had in school, but it surprised her to no end to see that there wasn't a piece of paper out of place. It was very unlike him and she still wasn't used to it. _

_James entered the house with a wide grin and said, "Do you like it?"_

_Lily had to admit, the house was nice, but like she feared it was almost too organized for her tastes. She wouldn't complain though, it was a place to live, a nice one at that._

_She looked through the beige living room, and then the grey kitchen and carefully walked up the wooden stairs to investigate upstairs. Once again upstairs she found one bedroom to be beige, one to be brown, the main one was grey and the bathrooms were pale yellow and light green, the most color in the house so far. She grimaced at that and came to an emptier room. It was white with a small bed and a dresser in it. She saw much potential in this room. _

_In front of her eyes the room started to change shape, into a pale blue and yellow room with a white crib, a changing table and a tiny dresser. She could see piles of toys and tiny clothes thrown everywhere. In her mind everything was for a baby boy, because she just knew, but James didn't have a clue yet._

"_Well Merry late Christmas Lily, I hope you like the house," James said as he appeared beside her._

"_I do, I especially like this room," she said with a wide grin and placed a hand on her stomach, which wasn't much bigger than two and a half months before._

"_It's kind of plain, isn't it?" he asked, not catching the irony in his words._

_A small smile appeared on her face and she said, "Right now it is, but it won't be soon."_

"_What?"_

_She smiled at him and said, "I've got something to tell you James…something very important…"_

* * *

Harry Potter stood in the hallway between the old living room and the old kitchen. Grime and dust covered the ground, but not nearly as bad as it would have been if there wasn't magic still on the old house. He glanced to the living room and then to the kitchen and only one thought entered his mind.

"It reminds me of the Dursleys," he blurted out. He didn't really like the dull look it had to it, something had always made him think that his home would have been just as comforting and crazy as the Weasley's, but it wasn't.

"Well your mom was the crazy bat's sister," Ron said as he looked around. He too got the same feeling from around the house.

"I don't know," Hermione said while taking a few steps into the kitchen, "I think it was more with the traditional pureblood living."

"What does that mean?" Ron snapped suddenly.

She was taken back by his defensiveness and said slowly, "Well most old pureblood families have very proper houses that are barely messed up, due to all the house-elves then own. The Potter family is a very old one that comes from an abundance of wealth so I imagine that James was raised in a pretty traditional home and kept that quality with him."

Ron's ears were bright red and he looked very cross, but he didn't say anything. Instead he walked into the living room to take a look around.

Hermione gave Harry a confused look and he just shook his head. She walked into the kitchen to see what was in there. For a moment Harry didn't know who to follow but he soon made up his mind: neither. He had somewhere else he wanted to see.

Carefully he walked up the creaking wood stairs to look around the upstairs rooms. One he found looked almost black, but he could see the underlying of brown, another one was an ugly faded shade of beige, the bathrooms were old and grimy shades of yellow and green.

His distaste for the old house continued to grow and he wasn't prepared for when he opened the second last door. He was shocked to see such nice colors in the house. They were faded from time but he could tell that at one point or another, this was a brightly lit, happy room. The walls were yellow with traces of blue around them, there were dust covered toys everywhere and tiny clothes piled in all ends of the room.

Harry entered the room hesitantly and noticed that the door didn't really close, it was partially broken. As he entered the room he saw that the window was shattered and many of the ceiling tiles had started to fall down. He continued to stare at the room and stopped dead in his tracks. He stared wide eyed at what was in front of him: a tipped over crib. It wasn't just the sight of the crib that surprised him; it was what was stained on it. On the edge of where someone had grabbed it was died up blood.

He carefully walked towards it and knelt down next to the crib. He knew, he just did, it was his mother's blood on the edge of the crib.

Suddenly it really hit him; this is where she had died. She had fallen in the exact spot that he now knelt. Tears appeared in Harry's eyes but he stubbornly refused to let them fall.

"Harry?" Hermione's sympathetic voice said suddenly. He didn't turn around, he didn't have to. She walked over and knelt down next to him. Placing a hand on his shoulder she said, "You miss her."

"This is where she died."

"It wasn't your fault," she replied, "She wouldn't want you to blame yourself."

"How do you know that?" Harry snapped suddenly while jumping to his feet and glaring down at her. Hermione stood up and stared at him with confusion.

"I'm sorry?"

"How do you know what she would or wouldn't want? She's _dead_," he growled angrily, finally letting the tears fall free.

"No mother would want that for her child. She died so you could live Harry, of course she wouldn't want you to be sad, she'd want you to grow up happy," Hermione replied with a shaky voice. The second they had entered the house she had felt sad, and it was starting to come to the surface now with teary eyes.

Suddenly she hugged Harry and let her own tears fall free and it was like that that Ron found them. Both silently crying, just hugging each other. He was about to back away from them but Hermione motioned for him to come over and she quickly put her other arm around him.

* * *

The three opted to sit on the old floor, they all agreed that it would feel awkward to sit on the couches or the chairs. Harry had a mission though, he was looking for the one thing that his aunt had told him should be there.

Leaving Ron and Hermione in the living room he once again climbed the stairs and entered the one room he hadn't yet: his parents' room. He carefully opened the door and stepped in. It was a fairly clean room and he saw items such an old perfume, cologne and various other items such as brushes laying around. He carefully walked over some of the clothes on the floor over to the unmade bed. Everything was the same as it had been the night they died; no one had had the heart to move anything.

He slowly dropped to his knees and looked under the bed and found exactly what he was looking for. Reaching under he quickly yanked out a box. It was a decent sized box but not really that heavy. He could feel the weight of a few books and objects but nothing too heavy. With the box in his arms he quickly made his way downstairs again, not wanting to stay in the room too long. It made him feel very awkward, almost as if someone was watching him.

When he entered the living room Ron and Hermione stopped their conversation. He had heard it of course, he had heard that they thought it was a bad idea to come here, that it would probably be too hard on time right now, but that wasn't true, he needed to be here, he knew it at the end of the school year and he knew it now.

When Dumbledore died he knew that all responsibility for the outcome of the wizarding world was on his shoulders now. Sure Ron and Hermione helped take a little weight off, but what they took off was replaced with ten times the amount of worry for them. He accepted that he would never be normal, he accepted that he had to learn the impossible, and he also accepted that he needed to learn how to be stronger: he needed to learn occumancy and he needed to learn silent spell casting. He wasn't ready to face Voldemort yet, but he soon would be.

"What's that?" Ron asked curiously.

"It was my mum's. Aunt Petunia told me that there might be a chance that she left her keepsake box under her bed, she used to do it when she was younger apparently. Petunia had a key for it," he explained and sat down on the floor. He reached into his pocket and took out the small silver key and carefully undid the lock. When he heard it click he slowly opened the lid and looked inside.

Neither Ron nor Hermione could see what was in the box from their positions and both were itching to know. Everyone and their dog knew who James Potter was, it had always been easy to find information on him, but Lily Potter was a different story. Being a muggle born, information was hard to come by, and they had never met any of her friends before, unlike with James where they had met his three closest school friends (even though one was a traitor).

An odd look appeared on Harry's face as he reached in and pulled out an old snitch. Its wings were bent and broken, and the golden luster they usually held had dulled down to a dull silver color, but it was still easy to tell what it was. Harry knew where he had seen it right away. It was the one his father had been playing with in the memory in Snape's pensive.

Harry set the still object to the ground and pulled out something else, it was lose picture. In it were four girls: one with dark red hair and emerald green eyes (his mother, Harry noted), another with light red hair and caramel colored eyes (she must be Sarah Prewett, Harry thought, noticing how much she resembled a skinnier, younger version of Mrs. Weasley), the third was a tall girl with curly blond hair and ice blue eyes (Alyssa, he deducted by elimination) and the fourth was a girl with a mischievous smile, long bronze hair and sapphire blue eyes. Harry stared at her for a moment before saying, "Karmen."

"What?" Hermione asked as she passed the snitch to Ron to inspect.

"This is a picture of my mom and her friends. They must have been in their last year of Hogwarts here. That's my mum, her friends Sarah and Alyssa, and the one on the end, that's my aunt, Karmen Potter. She was my dad's twin sister, she died before I was born," he explained.

"She's beautiful," Hermione said after a moment.

"Karmen?" he asked.

"Well…all of them. They all look so different, yet they're similar at the same time," Hermione said as she passed the picture to Ron.

Harry reached in the book and found where the picture had come from; there was a thick photo album in there. He set that on the ground to look at later. There were a couple objects in there, a hair clip, a bracelet, a comb, a ring and, much to his surprise, a small, lose crystal.

He held the clear stone up and said, "What do you think this was for?"

Hermione stared at it for a moment and said slowly, "It's possible that it could have been a present but…it reminds me of healing stones."

"Healing stones?" Ron asked curiously, "Aren't those the hooey things that people say channel certain abilities."

"Sort of," Hermione said, "and they're not hooey, they're jut a sketchy branch of magic. In fact muggles believe in this time of magic more than anything else, because most of it has to do with natural herbs and crystal. Different stones heal people in different ways but most of them are mentally or internally so Muggles don't notice the dramatic effect of the magic. Muggles seem to prefer that to what normal witches and wizards do. This branch of magic is called Wicca."

"Those who studied Wicca were healers though, with nature, herbs and stuff, I've never heard of stones though," Harry said, remembering that from history class.

"That's because it's ancient magic, very hard to use," Hermione explained, "but stones were known for their powerful uses in the past but only few people could use them. These days you'd have to be mightily powerful for them to work since no one gets trained in stone usage anymore."

Harry stared at it curiously; there it was again, the use of ancient magic. He knew his mother had used some kind of magic to save him, and now she had owned ancient magical stones. As he dug through the box he found where the diamond came from and put it back in the small pouch, which held a few other stones in it. He set it aside to inspect later.

Finally he came to what he was looking for: Lily Potter's journal. Along with it was another book, one with an old cover and faded pages. Harry knew this book; it was the one he had seen in his dream. His mother had been reading out of it and he had seen the word 'horcrux' in it.

Hermione and Ron watched with interest as he opened the book. Despite the fact that the pages were all worn the printing was clear on it, probably due to magic, and there were scribbles on the side of it. A warning bell went off in his head, the writing off to the sides was in a feminine script, but this book reminded him strongly of his potions book last year.

Hermione seemed to be thinking the same thing and said, "Check the writing in the diary to see if it matches or not."

He did as she suggested and opened the diary. He looked at the first entry, dated for her first day at Hogwarts. The writing was the same, much to his relief, and the first line of the entry amused him to no end. He chuckled lightly as he read that line over again.

"What?" Ron asked.

"It's her writing all right, but listen to the first line of this. Dated for her first day at Hogwarts ever, it starts out saying "I hate James Potter"," Harry said with a sad laugh. He set the diary down again.

"You can take time to read it Harry," Hermione said after a moment of silence.

"I'll do it later," he muttered as he flipped through the book. There were spells it in that he had never heard of, but he was looking for one part specifically. She had written on the page with horcrux on it, he had seen it, but, much to his distain, she had written on nearly every page.

Suddenly he stopped turning, he found it. Staring at the page he realized that she had circled some text and wrote the word horcrux beside it, the thing that made his heart fall was the fact that it wasn't in English, in fact he had never seen that language in his life.

Hermione looked over his shoulder after seeing his face and grimaced at the text before saying, "I've never seen that before. Not even in Ancient Runes."

"This is the one passage in here that has something to do with horcruxes, and we don't know what it is," Harry said with a groan and dropped the book to the ground angrily.

Ron reached over and looked at it for a moment. His eyes flickered from the text to Lily's journal and said, "look in there."

"Why?" both of his friends asked together.

Ron turned the book so that they could see the pages and pointed to something at the bottom of the page. It was a date. December 31th, 1979. Written in Lily's handwriting it appeared to have been scribbled in quickly.

Harry quickly snatched up the diary and flipped through it until he reached the last day of 1979. He started skimming it over but had to stop and start again slowly when he realized what he was reading.

_December 31st, 1979_

_Gone is another decade and beginning is another one with many new obstacles, hopes and adventures. I don't know what I'm going to tell James yet, I'm so nervous and excited! But at the same time I'm full of dread. When Alice announced that she was pregnant a few weeks ago Dumbledore gave us all the gravest news, a prophecy. Sure it's good that it's about destroying Voldemort once and for all but knowing your child could be the one destined to do it? _

Alice is already nervous and they're worried it'll harm the baby, I spoke to her and she said that I was lucky I didn't have to go through the same worry since it could have been my child the prophecy spoke about. She said I was lucky I wasn't pregnant so I didn't have to worry.

_If only she knew._

_I don't know how I can tell James about the baby. I don't want to be trapped or crowded but…I don't know what to do. I don't want my little boy facing Voldemort. As written before I'm still positive that it will be a boy, even though that makes me nervous because the prophecy clearly says HE, so if it was a girl then I wouldn't have to worry…but it's my boy, I know it is._

_If he was chosen though, he'd have to go through the challenge of destroying all of Voldemort's horcruxes though, and that in itself is difficult enough. I've found a spell in my ancient book. I haven't been able to translate it yet but the description of it is so similar to that of a horcrux. I know I'm going in the right direction._

_I have to find them; I have to find at least a few of them so that my baby won't have to worry as much about finding them but training to defeat Voldemort. I just know it, it's going to be my baby boy who will be chosen. I have no reason for believing that, just a feeling. I also know that I won't be alive for much longer, that I'll have to watch over him from a place he can't see. _

_I already know that I'm going to die, so I'll leave these last few years of my life to the best of my abilities. Some people might call me overly suspicious about this prophecy but I'm not. I'm not stupid, I know there are truths behind all predictions, how could I not. My own sister, poor Vera, she predicated her death and mine, and neither one sounds terribly appealing. But she said that I had a child with me and that child was in danger…I don't care if I die; I refuse to let my baby he harmed. Vera told me the child looked about a year old so that means I have about two years left. She was right about her death, and I know that each day mine looms closer. _

_I don't know what to do, I'm going to keep translating this document to see what it's about. If it is a way to split a soul without having to murder someone then maybe…maybe it'd be worth it to split someone's soul so that they can't die…maybe…would it be a terrible thing to split a child's soul if it was to protect them?_

_I'm talking nonsense, this whole thing is nonsense. I'm worried about James's reaction to the baby. Well he's back now and insisting that we go and see our new house today. He's going to be getting a surprise of his own today as well…_

_This should be interesting._

_Lily Marie Potter _

Harry's mouth hung open and Ron and Hermione stared at him curiously. He stood up quickly and said, "I want to see her grave, both of them."

"Harry, what did it say?" Hermione asked him as he quickly grabbed his discarded jacket and walked out the door. She and Ron looked at each other for a moment but they didn't go after him, they knew he didn't want them to.

"What do you think it said?" Ron asked after a moment.

Hermione shook her head and said, "He'll tell us when he's ready, don't pressure him. What we can do though is try to translate this." She nodded towards the book in her hand.

"I thought you've never seen anything like that before."

"I haven't, but we were supposed to look at an old language, one that was known as a dead language long before Latin was first spoken, in seventh year Ancient Runes," she explained.

"You think it might be this language," Ron asked skeptically.

"It might be," she said as she took her trunk out of her pocket and enlarged it to normal size before digging through, searching for her Ancient Runes text book.

* * *

At first he was only walking quickly, and then he started to jog, but by the time Harry had arrived at the cemetery he was running. It was starting to rain but he didn't care. Just like everything else in this town he knew where it was, but he didn't remember ever coming to this place specifically.

He stopped running and started breathing evil, his eyes staring directly at two tombstones a few feet away from him. He got to them and knelt down on the wet ground. He used a spell to clear off his glasses and to make the rain rebound off of them so he could see the names better.

_**James William Potter  
April 11th, 1960 – October 31st, 1981  
A strong father, friend, husband and brother  
We will never forget your free spirit**_

_**Lily Marie Potter  
May 31st, 1960 – October 31st, 1981  
A fierce mother, friend, wife and sister  
You're sacrifice and love will be remembered  
He smiled at the descriptions and placed a hand on each stone.**_

"I'm finally here, I finally came to visit you," he whispered, "I spent hours in front of the Mirror of Erised staring at you, and I dreamt of the Triwizard Tournament over and over again, but I'm really here now. I-I know…I miss you guys. Mom, why though, why did you do it? You could have saved yourself; you could have been alive today. Is it true, did you find a way to split a soul without committing murder? Is that why I survived? I-I love you mom for it; I really do, but why? Dad, I wish I knew who you were. I know you from your friends as a great person, I've seen you as the worst person in the world and now I know that you were very…traditional and sort of stiff like so many pureblood wizards are. I just wish I knew you guys…so much…"

Tears streaked down his cheeks but no one would have been able to tell. His hair stuck to his face and his clothes hung to his body as he said again, "Why'd you die for me mom?"

* * *

Tears streaked down Lily Evan's (soon to be Lily Potter) cheeks. Petunia stood a few feet away from her but she didn't do anything to try and get her sister off of the wet ground and under an umbrella.

"_Why Vera?" she whispered to her sister, "Why didn't you tell me this was what you saw? Why did you push me out of the way? It should be me here, not you." She couldn't speak anymore, her sobs continued to compete with the sound of the rain hitting the ground. _

_Lily took a few deep breaths before saying, "I love you sis, I really do, but how could this happen? You should have let me die, you could have saved yourself. Why'd you die for me Vera?"_

_She had never gotten an answer, but in her last few seconds of life she understood. She understood that it was better to die for someone you love than to watch someone else die because you were too afraid to step up and save them. _

_It was a lesson she'd hope her son would never learn. _

* * *

**Authors Note**

For anyone who's read this chapter before yes I changed it around. Why? Because I got stuck with the whole Lily splitting her soul thing. She didn't really split her soul it was Harry coming to conclusion but then I couldn't remember how I wanted to word what she was really trying to do. All I know is that it had nothing to do with a "good" horcrux. I'll point out why in the next chapter ok!

Yeah so I backed myself into a corner and decided to get out the only way I could, going back and getting rid of what pushed me there in the first place! The other idea was interesting and I might look into it more later but for now we'll stick with this. It's much less…direct. Meaning we don't know what Lily did in the end because her diary entry was written nearly two years before she died.

Yeah…just so you know I have no clue where I'm going with this. I have a pretty good idea of how I want this to end and who I'm going to have dying and all…but in between here and there I only have a few ideas…wish me luck! Haha!

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	9. The First Clue

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Nine:_** The First Clue  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure, Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes such as death (no this story does not contain any sex so if people are looking for that then I'm sorry to disappoint you)

Just so you know there are no "couples" in this story, no major romance or anything else…possibly a little flirting and so on but nothing huge so no one has to worry about H/Hr or H/G and all that nice stuff because I don't care about it…

* * *

**_"People make fun of foreboding in stories; they say it's not realistic. But after something bad happens and they look back they'll realize all the signs that led to the point they're at now." _**

* * *

"He's been out there for hours."

"He'll be fine."

"It's pouring rain!"

"He can use magic."

"I don't think he'll think of it in his state of mine."

A confused look passed over Ron's face as he asked, "What state of mind?"

Hermione rolled her dark brown eyes and said, "Don't be so stupid Ronald. You saw his reaction before he left. Something in that diary affected him badly, for all we know he's sitting in front of his parents graves in the pouring rain, freezing to death."

Ron looked towards the closed diary and said, "We could just take a peak at it…"

"Absolutely not," she snapped, "You will do no such thing Ronald Bilius Weasley! The only person who has any right to read anything in that diary is Harry and you know it."

Ron slumped down and said, "I just want to help him, we can't unless we know what's wrong."

Hermione stood up and said, "Well we can't help him if he's not here or if he dies from pneumonia or some magic equivalent. I'm going to find him." She grabbed her jacket and took off out the door.

"Hermione, wait!" Ron yelled and ran out the door while pulling his jacket on.

* * *

He was cold, he knew he should be back at the house now, back with Ron and Hermione, but he didn't want to leave. He was with his parents for the first time in sixteen years.

Harry still knelt on the ground in front of their graves; he still shook with mental pain as well as cold now. Many times he had gone to get up but he stopped himself.

He couldn't leave.

"Harry!"

"Harry!"

He didn't hear the two voices yelling for him. He didn't hear their approach and he didn't realize that they were right behind him until he felt a warm hand on his shoulder.

"Come on Harry, you have to get up before you get sick," Hermione's calm voice said to him, "come on."

"Just a few more minutes," Harry said slowly.

"You've been out here for hours mate, a few more minutes and you won't have to worry about Voldemort killing you anymore," Ron said as he yanked Harry up from the ground. Hermione gave Ron a dirty look but said nothing as they stared to steer Harry back towards the old Potter house.

No one talked on their way back and Harry had the urge to run back to his mother's grave like a child would run to their mother's arm. It was the closest he had ever gotten to his mother in the past sixteen years. His very tiny efforts were wasted though as Ron and Hermione each had one of Harry's arms held tightly, making sure he went where they wanted like guards to do prisoners.

Once they were back inside and Hermione used a spell to dry them all of she asked, "Harry, what was in her diary?"

Harry was staring at the spot in front of him for a moment before slowly looking at her and saying, "It was about two years before she died. The book where we found the date to look at… She thought that she might have found a way to split a soul without committing murder."

"Who did?" Ron asked with confusion.

"My mother did. Or at least that's what she said she did. She was wondering if it would be a bad thing to split her child's soul if it would save me," he said quietly.

Hermione frowned and said, "That's impossible. I don't think there's such thing as a good horcrux-"

"It wasn't a horcrux," Harry snapped at her suddenly, "those are evil, pure evil. All she wanted to do was split my soul. At least she thought it might work."

"Did she actually do it?" Ron asked after an uncomfortable silence, "or was it just an idea of hers?"

"She…it was too early on to tell," Harry replied, suddenly more alert and focused than before, "I didn't read—I was too shocked to even think of checking the next passages in her diary."

"Harry," Hermione said slowly after a moment of thought, "I don't think that's what saved you that night."

"What?" he asked, "why not?"

"Well in theory that would mean that you would only be half a person. We know that Voldemort split his soul and each time he lost some of his humanity with it. Splitting his soul into seven pieces made him the monster he is now. I also don't think there's anyone someone could split a soul without using dark magic. No, I don't think she was one hundred percent wrong in her diary," Hermione added quickly, seeing the angry look that passed over Harry's face, "but I don't think she was right either. The spell might have something to do with the soul but splitting it? It seems highly unlikely. If there were such thing as a good 'horcrux' Voldemort would have gone out of his way to destroy any mention of the light horcrux so that none of his enemies could become immortal to face him. He would have been much more cautious when going to your house that night, just in case."

"That…" Ron said with an awestruck look on his face, "is the most brilliant theory I think you've ever put out there."

"My mum would have known, she would have written down if she made a mistake," Harry said weakly.

Hermione picked up the diary and said, "There's still two more years' worth of entries in here Harry. That's two more years she had to straighten the spell around." She let the book's pages slide through her fingers from the date that they had last read when a loose, folded piece of paper fell out of the book. She stopped flipping the pages and stared at it curiously.

Harry reached out and picked it up. His eyes scanned it for a moment before he said, "It's a good thing my mum was organized. This came from May 24th, 1980."

Hermione was about to start flipping through the book again but stopped. This was Harry's book, not hers; she had no right to go through it without his permission.

"A map!" Ron exclaimed with surprise when Harry unfolded it, "it's a bloody map."

"Hermione, what color is the writing on May 24, 1980?" Harry asked after staring at the map for a moment. Every little ink mark on it was a different color, and from what Harry had seen in the book there had been pages with random colors on it aside from traditional black ink.

She quickly scanned through the book and finally said, "Blue, why?"

"There's nothing odd about that," Ron said while giving his friend a confused look.

"No don't you see. Each of these are different colors meaning I bet she circled them at different times. That specific date in the book is blue and on here there's something circled in blue. They must go together." Rounded around to Hermione again he said, "I want you to read it aloud."

"Are you sure made?" Ron said suddenly, "we don't have to know anything that goes on in the book. It's _your_ mother's diary."

"I know," he said but that was all the reply Ron got. "Read it."

Hermione looked down at the book and back at them for a moment. Harry's green eyes seemed to bore into her own, making her uncomfortable, so she looked down at the book and began reading.

* * *

Ginny rested her head against the window on the Hogwarts Express staring out the transparent glass to the stormy outside. Summer had come and gone, and Hogwarts had reopened. It wasn't a decision made lightly, but it was made. No where was safe in the wizarding world anymore yet Hogwarts added that extra bit of protection few other places had: hundreds of witches and wizard together in the same place at the same time.

She sat up quickly and looked around as Luna entered the compartment. The blond girl sat across from her for a moment before saying, "You're frustrated."

"I'm fine," Ginny mumbled.

Luna's large eyes stared at her for a moment before saying in an airy voice, "No you're not. This has something to do with Harry; he's not on the train. Neither is Ronald nor Hermione."

Ginny looked up at her with surprise and once again admired Luna's ability to be so in touch with reality when she was, in reality, very out of touch. A small smile appeared on her face, "You don't have to worry about me. Did you have a good summer?"

"I stayed home," Luna said after a moment, "it's good to be close to your family in times like these."

"I see your dad is still printing the Quibbler," Ginny said while pointing to the rolled up book in Luna's had.

Nodding her head so enthusiastically that Ginny was surprised Luna's wand didn't fly out from its place tucked behind her ear she said, "Of course. Why wouldn't he? Some one needs to write the truth."

For the first time in awhile an honest laugh came from Ginny Weasley. Luna didn't scoff at the laugh, in fact she didn't seem to care what Ginny was laughing at; as long as her friend was smiling again.

"Hey guys."

Both girls looked up as Neville Longbottom walked into the room. He looked from one to the other and asked, "You don't mind if I sit here do you."

"Of course not," Ginny said and patted the seat beside her, "sit down, stay awhile."

"The trains emptier than normal," Neville said after a moment, "very empty."

"People want their families to be together," Ginny replied, "but I think that we should be going back."

"We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided," Luna said suddenly.

"What?" the other occupants of the train car asked with started looks.

She shrugged and said, "Professor Dumbledore said that after Cedric Diggory died."

They sat in silence for a few minutes but were soon joined by Dean Thomas, Lavender Brown and Seamus Finnigan.

"Seamus? What are you doing here?" Neville asked with surprise. He had known that at the end of the year last year the other boy's mother had shown up and tried to take him home. It had seemed unlikely that he would return but here he was.

"I won't a shouting match," Seamus said proudly, "I argued and argued with my mam until my pa finally spoke up telling her to just let me come back to school. But I see we're missing a few people…"

"Parvati and Padma won't be coming back," Lavender said sadly, "I only got one letter from Parvati this summer and she had to sneak to send that to me, her parents don't want the Death Eaters to find them."

There was a silence as everyone stared at the ground before Dean finally asked the question that was burning everyone's mind, "Where are Harry, Ron and Hermione?"

"I don't know," Ginny said slowly, "no one does."

"What do you mean no one knows where they are?" Lavender asked with alarm.

"They left during the summer, just after Bill's wedding. I caught them sneaking away from the Burrow but I never heard where they were going," Ginny said while shaking her head.

"It must be something very important," Neville said after thinking for a few minutes.

Ginny nodded and giggled when Lavender said, "It must be. Hermione is ditching school for whatever they're doing. I never thought I'd hear the day, Hermione Granger, Hogwarts Drop Out."

A few chuckles were heard before everything went quiet again.

"Do you know who the head boy and girl are?" Seamus asked.

"Ernie Macmillan and Lisa Turpin," Luna said while staring out the window in her normal dreamy attitude.

"Hermione should have been head girl," Lavender said.

"I'm betting Harry would have been head boy too," Dean added.

"I guess we'll never know now," Neville said with a sigh as he slumped back in the seat.

Aside from some idle chatter the rest of the trip to Hogwarts was relatively quite.

* * *

"…circled in blue is the location of the old Ravenclaw home. It is preserved by magic but hundreds of years old. I believe that is where Voldemort at least found one of his horcrux, Ravenclaw's item. I've searched long and hard and I found out what the four items of the founders are, the ones that are remaining at least: the locket of Slytherin, the cup of Hufflepuff, the sword of Gryffindor and the flute of Ravenclaw. No one knows where Gryffindor's sword vanished to, the locket and the cup were stolen when their owner was murdered and the flute…I believe that at one time it was probably at Rowena, the village named after Ravenclaw. If Voldemort took it from there then I don't know where it could be, but I think that going there might help in finding the location. I don't know why I think that, it's just a feeling.

James is home, I had better hide this diary. I don't want him to worry about me so it's best he doesn't know what I'm doing.

Lily Marie Potter"

Hermione stopped reading and looked up at Harry, who was in deep thought.

"How did she know?" Ron asked suddenly.

"What?" Hermione replied.

"How did she know about the horcrux, and what to look for? I mean she couldn't have just thought out of thin air 'hey I bet You-oh alright (he had seen the look both of his friends gave him) V-Voldemort split his soul'. So how did she know?" Ron asked.

"That's a good question," Harry agreed, "Dumbledore told me once that he was never positive that Voldemort had split his soul until that night when…well you know. It was a theory of his but it wasn't proven before hand."

"What did your mother do?" Hermione asked suddenly.

"Do?" Harry asked blankly.

"Her profession! She was Head Girl at Hogwarts in her seventh year, so she must have been high in her classes and a good leader," Hermione explained.

"I never thought about it really. I guess that's one more thing we should look up. Whatever she was doing must be connected to how she found the information about Voldemort," Harry said slowly.

"So we have a third destination now," Hermione said, "so I don't think we should stay here much longer. We should just try to find some things that might help us and leave."

"Three destinations?" Ron asked.

"Grimmauld Place, Rowena and now the Ministry to look up what my mother did," Harry replied.

"I think Gringotts would be a better place to check. They would know where her money had been coming from," the only female of the group interjected.

Harry thought about it for a moment before saying, "It's a way to start."

"So Gringotts first?" Ron questioned.

"No, I don't want to waste too much time. Let's go to Rowena and get this over with," Potter said quickly.

"Agreed," Granger piped up.

Weasley looked from one friend to the other and with a dramatic sigh he said, "You two are going to be the death of me."

* * *

Compared to years before the Great Hall in Hogwarts was much emptier. The fullest table by far was the Gryffindor table, followed by Ravenclaw and then Hufflepuff. There were very few Slytherins left and those who were looked terribly awkward.

When the first years marched in Minerva sighed sadly at the sight of so few of them. The sixteen first years slowly walked past all of the older students and up to the front of the hall. She knew that Dumbledore's portrait was probably watching from a random painting nearby, having tea and lemon drops with its occupants and he watched the small group of first years get sorted. Even though he was only a painting Minerva new that he wouldn't be one happy painting after this.

The sorting hat opened up it's brim wide like every year and began to sing, but unlike years before, where the tune had always been upbeat in a way, this was a very gloomy sounding song.

_I warned you once, I warned you twice,  
__The time has come and gone,  
__To stop the ever changing times,  
__And this path will be long._

_It's like looking in a mirror to a thousand years ago,  
__When Hogwarts stood at war, divided by magics four.  
__Gryffindor's gleaming sword led the way,  
__And fought his enemies with courage to the grave.  
__Hufflepuff healed with magic in her cup,  
__Although no one knew how she never gave up.  
__Ravenclaw soothed all with her flute,  
__Even the most savage beast quickly became mute.  
__Slytherin confused and hid in his locket,  
__A most unbelievable power held only in a pocket. _

_Those days have come,  
__Those days have gone,  
__But now they come again.  
__We've gone to war,  
__The traitors are true,  
__And the leaders are on the rise,  
__But what does this mean to all of you?  
What is this asking you to do?_

_Stand up together, stand up as one,  
__Not as four separate houses,  
__Use your strengths as one,  
__Courage, Loyalty, Wisdom and Ambition,  
__And you will be ready when the time comes.  
__  
As for these young ones: stand together,  
__Do not let prejudice rule you.  
__No matter the house, you are all the same  
__Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff,  
__You are all important to the future._

_Now I lay to rest this one song,  
__The last? Who knows. It's possible.  
__These little ones will be sorted,  
__And the old ones must learn,  
__And now I will begin the division. _

Whispers echoed through the hall and never once had Minerva seen so many curious or nervous glances shared amongst students, not even when the murder of Cedric Diggory or Albus Dumbledore been announced.

Small professor Flitwick cleared his voice from atop a tall four legged stool and said, "When I call your name come and sit on the stool and I'll place the hat on your head."

Everyone watched in amazement as the hat only just touched the head of the student it was set on before shouting out a name. It almost appeared to be at random and by the end Professor McGonagall was curious; there were exactly two girls and two boys in every house for first years.

Then, the most shocking part of the night happened, the sorting hat opened its brim and said, "No, not a song again, but a truth. Sorted they were not for their strengths, but for where they're needed. So now I will rest and keep a watch on you all for things are going to get worse before they get better."

Over in a far corner of the Great Hall the panting of Albus Dumbledore smiled to himself, the painted blue twinkle in his eyes seemed almost brighter than normal.

"What does that mean Albus?" the other occupant asked.

"It means the division in Hogwarts is starting to come to and end," the newly created portrait said. He was very pleased with how things were turning out, very pleased indeed.

* * *

**Author's Note**

I'm sorry for the long wait for this chapter but once again, pretty busy! Yes this might seem a little choppy and all but it needed to be done, I had it planned out that way. Also if the sorting song doesn't make much sense to you try not to think about it too much. I wrote that part at around 2 in the morning so it might not make much sense.

Those of you who read the last chapter will notice some things that don't seem to add up, the fact that Harry was talking about his mother wanted to split his soul instead of hers was one. I changed around chapter eight some to make the story work the way I wanted it too.

Take that information lightly though, that idea was written by Lily almost two years before she died so things might have changed…

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! And there was one person who saw some inconsistencies in this story, Skippy Argogo, I think I should do some explaining because some things you pointed out are true and others…well not so much. The extra sisters, Vera and Karmen, are important in one way or another in a sort of 'Harry finding out who he really is' way. They come into play in later chapters more than anything. As for the brush off of Ginny…well I have no explanation of that. I just don't like Ginny. And yeah, the Dursleys were too nice…I just wanted to show that there is some good in almost everyone.

And the more I thought about it the more I didn't buy the whole Lily splitting her soul thing either, so I changed it. I don't really buy the whole Lily splitting Harry's soul thing yet but I dunno where I'm going with that.

Criticism is welcomed because I think it gives me a chance to either change my story in a positive direction…or explain some things that will be coming later on!

Thank you to holimontski, Freedomstar, Demonically Angelic Neko88, Skippy Argogo, rosiegirl, pupadawg66, and everyone else who reviewed the other chapters.

Anyways I have to stop writing and post this before I'm late for school.

Later!

_**Krystal Lily Potter **_


	10. Forbidden

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Ten:_** Forbidden  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?

**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes, and example of this being death. There is very little sexual innuendo, and this story IS NOT based on couples or anything. Well maybe at the end there will be some of that but it's not prominent throughout the story.

Note: There might seem to be some random characters with no point here, ones I made up, but they are all relevant in one way or another. I needed certain characters for certain things and none of the "extras" in the book worked for that…

* * *

"_**If everyone cared and nobody cried, if everyone loved and nobody lied, if everyone shared and swallowed their pride, then we'd see the day when nobody die." **_**_

* * *

_**

It was dark when Harry, Ron and Hermione finally arrived in the small town of Rowena. They hadn't known the exact location of it so they needed to apparate to several places before they reached the right one. The second they were in the tiny village Harry knew it was the right place. He could feel darkness grabbing at him the second he appeared at the side of the tiny streets.

Hermione shudder involuntarily at his right and to his left Ron had a nervous look on his face. It was cold, dark and there was a bitterly angry chilling wind biting at them. None of them could see where there would be an inn for them to stay at, but there were plenty of abandoned houses they knew they could brake into.

As the three of them walked carefully down the cobblestone street Harry noticed that there were a few windows with candles in them indicating life, but something told him that these weren't the nicest of people that lived here.

"This place," Hermione said suddenly, "there's something off about it."

Ron nodded and said, "It feels…I don't know…"

"Like something was taken away from them, and all the hope in the world was taken with it," Harry said quietly.

"That's deep mate," Ron replied without looking at Harry.

"We're in the right place," Hermione added. "We have to be."

The two boys nodded and the group stayed huddled together as they walked: Hermione sandwiched closely between Harry and Ron.

Harry looked over at one of the broken windows and saw an old man staring at him. When the man realized that the stranger on the streets had seen him he quickly retreated behind the tattered curtain.

"Why is it that every place we seem to go is so beat up?" Ron asked suddenly.

"Sadly it's because most of these places are magical," Hermione said grimly. "Wizards and witches use spells to repair small cracks, breaks and things like that but over time the natural wear and tear destroys houses despite magic. Because the magical world is so old fashioned most houses are made from wood, which deteriorates much quicker than the plastics that are more commonly used these days in the muggle world. Not even magic can save nature's principles of life and death forever."

"So what you're saying is that muggles have better living ideas than us magic folk?" the red head snapped, seemingly offended.

The other two shared a confused look before Hermione said, "Yes, I guess I am. There are some things that muggles do that just make more sense then what magic people. Parchment and ink for instance. It's so much easier and organized to use paper and pen…even pencils for those who make mistakes. It's the same with computers, televisions, cellphones and many other things that don't work around magic but would be helpful."

"Rubbish," Ron said angrily, "we don't need any muggle things. Personally I think that they need more magical things."

"Maybe you're right Ron," Harry said before Hermione could argue with him. "You've lived with magic all your life so even though you're not a traditional pureblood in the sense of despising muggle borns and half bloods but you do hold some of the same ignorance that many other purebloods seem to have. But let's not think about that now. We should work at trying to find Ravenclaw's house."

"I imagine it'll be a stone one," Hermione said thoughtfully, "Probably a bit…grander than these houses."

"You think?" Harry asked.

She nodded and said, "It'd probably be decorated to match Hogwarts a bit. I doubt she lived in the castle her entire life, but the place definitely would have been a source of comfort for her, I'm betting."

"Take a little piece of home with you," Potter said with a nod.

"What are you two going on about? She moved a piece of Hogwarts here?" Weasley asked with confusion.

"Of course not Ronald," Hermione said with exasperation, "I mean she probably decorated her house to remind her of Hogwarts for when she wasn't there. Probably more interior then exterior but the outside might have a slight resemblance to the castle."

"Oh. How about that place?" Ron said while pointing down a street perpendicular to them. Harry and Hermione turned around to see the silhouette of a tall house made of stone. It was old, vines had twisted up the sides of it and the yard was covered with tall, un-kept grass. It looked like it had been abandoned longer than the Potter house had, and the more Harry thought about it the more he realized that nobody had probably lived in there since Rowena herself.

They approached the house, holding their cloaks close to their bodies for warmth. As they continued walking, step by step, Harry started getting the feeling that he was walking into the heart of an immense darkness.

They got to the front door and the wind seemed to stop. Hermione moved a step closer to Harry and looked around nervously, "something isn't right."

"I know," he said and carefully opened the door. The house was pitch black, Harry couldn't even see a foot in front of his face.

"_Lumous_," he whispered, holding out his wand. The tip of it lit up brilliantly, casting light into all corners of the room. Suddenly, in Harry's mind, the ruins of Godric's Hallow looked like a palace compared to this place. Although the outside was made of more durable stone the inside was made of mostly wood. He wasn't sure if he wanted to walk too far into the house, incase there was a basement and the floor gave out on them.

Ron's eyes fearfully followed the spiders that seemed to infest the entire foyer, and Hermione scuffed the ground with her foot, revealing that they were standing on a few centimeters of grime.

"This place is disgusting," she muttered with a disapproving glance around the room.

"I imagine very few people lived in here after Rowena," Harry said.

"I don't know Harry. I think this place would be completely run down if there wasn't a care taker, at least. I'm betting that it turned into this in the last century.

"It was like this when he was here," Potter said after a moment, taking a few cautious steps into the main hallway of the house. "I saw it in my dream. Well actually, it looked a little better than this."

"It's been about fifty years since he's been here," Hermione said. "Maybe forty...thirty at least. This place has had a chance to change for the worse."

"I bet he killed em," Ron said suddenly. "Riddle I mean. I bet he killed the caretaker when he came here. He wasn't a person to negotiate when he wanted something, was he?"

"No," Harry agreed. "He wasn't."

"Do you remember which way to go?" Hermione asked Harry.

He slowly turned his head and stared at the doorway on his right. Carefully he started trudging over the grimy floor. Hermione grabbed the fabric of his sleeve and kept up in pace with him while keeping her other hand firmly glued to Ron's sleeve. The three of them carefully walked through what looked like an old kitchen, up to a doorway in the room.

"A closet?" Hermione asked skeptically.

"We're in the magic world Hermy (Ron pointed ignored the glare that she gave him at the mention of the nickname Grawp had given her). Keep that in mind. Not everything is as it seems, unlike with the muggle world," the red head explained.

Before Hermione could snap at Ron Harry quickly moved forward and pushed the door open to reveal…a closet. Looking smug and confused at the same time Hermione watched as Harry pried his arm away from her grip for a moment as he walked into the closet. Using his wand to look at the items on the shelf he finally found what he was looking for: a vile of clear liquid. He wasn't interested in that though, he was more interested in what was behind it. Removing the vile and tucking it into his pocket for safe keeping, he found the object of his desire: a small, rusted, dusty key.

"You didn't mention that part of your dream," Hermione muttered, her dark brown eyes never letting Harry out of her sight.

"This wasn't from my dream," Harry replied. "I just…felt this here."

"Felt it?" Ron asked as Harry walked past them again and headed back out into the main hall.

"I don't know Ron," he said while carefully applying his mass to one of the old steps. It creaked dangerously, but kept in tact, so he placed his second foot on. "It's weird though. I saw Dumbledore actually feeling magic last year, that's how we got to where the horcrux was supposed to be, he felt it. So during our stay at the Dursley I started practicing being able to…feel magic. To see if I could do it."

"How did you know what to do?" Hermione asked as she carefully walked up the creaking stairs after him.

"I remembered what you told me once. You said that each spell leaves behind its own marks, even if they're not visible. So I tried to feel out the lightening charms on my trunk by concentrating on that specific charm. It was odd, but soon I began to just…fell it. I would look at my trunk and know, that had a charm on it. I'm not very good at it yet though; this is the first time I've found something by searching for it with magic. There's only two other things I can feel magic wise."

"Really? What?" Ron asked, and Hermione looked just as interested.

Harry smiled slightly to himself before saying, "later, we've got a job to do."

He didn't want to say it aloud, just in case someone or something else was listening, but the things that he had felt with magic…the things he could now sense without having to open his eyes were his two greatest weaknesses.

Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley.

* * *

McGonagall looked down at the report on her desk with a frustrated sigh. She had assigned members of the Order to search for Harry Potter, to at least find his location, but so far they had found nothing. It was as if the boy and his friends had vanished from the face of the earth.

She suddenly heard a light chuckle from over her head and turned around, glaring at the picture behind her. The picture's twinkling blue eyes stared at her with deep amusement as she said, "Can I help you with something Albus?"

"No Minerva, that's quite alright," he said happily and ate one of the lemon drops that had been painted into his portrait. "But it appears that I could help you."

"Unless you know where Potter, Weasley and Granger have vanished to then I think not."

"Alas I do not know of Mr. Potter's current location," the portrait of Dumbledore said dramatically. "Although I do hope he has gone to one place in particular, it would be most helpful on his part."

"Where?" Minerva asked. "I'm sure if you suggested it before you…passed…then he would have gone there. He was quite stubborn about not mentioning what you were doing that night before you both came back to the tower."

"No, I did not suggest for him to go anywhere. As for what we were doing, unfortunately I wasn't updated with those memories, and I only know what I am told. Although, because I was updated just prior to leaving on that particular adventure I believe I do know where we went. I hope it was a success," Dumbledore said thoughtfully.

"You know where you were going?" she asked hopefully.

"But of course. The clues are all around you Minerva, you just have to start looking harder to see them sitting right in front of you," Dumbledore said pleasantly before walking out of his portrait to some unknown portrait somewhere in the school.

She shook her head with exasperation; even the painting of Dumbledore was just as mysterious as the man had been. She stared at the sheets in front of her again, his words repeating themselves in her mind over and over again.

The clues are all around you Minerva, you just have to start looking harder to seem them sitting right in front of you.

Suddenly Minerva McGonagall was very worried. She wasn't sure about what, but she felt a wave of helplessness pass over her. She didn't know what to do this time. One of two beacons of light was now dead, and the other seemed to have vanished from the face of the wizarding world.

And all the while the darkness was growing stronger.

* * *

"They're not at the school my master," Peter Pettigrew said while trembling at Voldemort's feet. "I snuck onto the grounds and I heard whispers that no one knew where they were."

Lord Voldemort leaned back on his stone throne that he had made himself. His snake-like eyes looked at the pathetic man in front of him with boredom as he said, "is that all Wormtail?"

"Yes my master," Pettigrew squeaked.

Voldemort looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "Where did Dumbledore go that night before he was finally destroyed?"

"We're not sure," came the voice of Severus Snape. The former potions professor took a step forward before adding, "But we do know that he was alone."

Voldemort stared at him before nodding and saying, "Get out of my sight."

Snape and Wormtail both quickly left the throne room and walked down the outside corridor.

When they were far away from the room, and there were no other Death Eaters around Peter said in a hushed tone, "You lied."

"What?" Snape snapped at him.

"You lied to the Dark Lord. There was someone else with him that night and you knew it," Wormtail hissed.

"And unless you want to die you'll never spread such wrong rumors," Snape said slowly with a glint of dislike in his eyes. He stared at Peter for a moment before storming down the corridor, his black cloak swishing out behind him.

"You and I are more alike now then we ever were Snape. We were both trusted and both of us betrayed the trustee," Pettigrew said before walking in another direction.

Snape almost stopped walking at Peter's words, but he kept his composure and kept walking down the darkened corridor.

**

* * *

**

Harry walked down a dark hallway, his wand lit up in front of him. Once again Hermione was holding on to his sleeve with one hand and Ron's with the other, so that they wouldn't get lost.

It was dark but his green eyes trailed over the hallway, recognizing it from his dreams. There was also a familiar feeling in the air, one he was starting to grow accustom to feeling, especially being in that particular house. The place had a stench of Voldemort in it, but Harry could only get small, awful whiffs of it every once and a while.

He suddenly stopped walking, causing his friends to run into him.

"Bloody hell mate," Ron said for the fifteenth time in the past hour.

"This is the room, I remember it," he said before grabbing the door knob and turning it open. He carefully opened the door and cautiously peered into the room. Harry couldn't see or feel anything dangerously evil in the room, so he deemed it safe enough to enter, for now at least.

Behind him Ron suddenly got a nervous look on his face as he looked behind him. "There's something in here."

"What?" Hermione whispered back.

"Something's watching us, I can feel it," Ron muttered.

Hermione looked over her shoulder, passed him and down the darkened hall nervously. It was impossible to tell if there was anything walking down the hall behind them. She could only see the dimly lit light of the room they were going into, she could see a dim version of Harry, and Ron's face was barely lit up.

Harry stared at them before saying, "Get in the room and close the door."

They followed his command and quickly closed the door behind them. All of them looked around the room that Harry had seen in his dream. The only thing that struck him as different was the mess in the room. It was as if someone had a fit in the room.

Carefully they walked around the room together before Hermione squeezed Harry's arm roughly and said, "There. There was something there."

Both boys followed her gaze and leaned their wands down towards what she was pointing at with her free hand. Ron knelt down next to the spot on the ground where there was almost no grime or dust in a perfect circular shape.

"There was definitely something here," Ron agreed.

Harry was now looking at the ground, noticing that there was a small skid mark on the floor. He followed it, bringing Hermione with him, seeing as she wouldn't let go of his sleeve. He peered at the marks curiously before saying, "How is this possible? These marks should have been covered up with thirty or forty years of dust."

"Who knows," Ron said from across the room. He had migrated over to an old fire place and was looking at it curiously. Suddenly he turned around and said, "did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" Harry and Hermione replied.

"It sounds like creaking. Worse then when we were walking across the floor," Ron said nervously, his blue eyes darting around the room.

"Oh Ronald," Hermione said with a soft laugh. She stared up at Harry and noticed he was no longer staring at his friends or around the room, but at his feet. She followed his gaze and noticed footprints along the floor.

"They fit perfectly," Harry muttered to himself.

Confusion was written across her face as she studied what he was talking about before she saw it. He was stepping in one of Tom Riddle's still living footprints, and his foot fit absolutely perfectly in it. Hermione quickly looked back up at him and frowned at the disturbed look on Harry's face.

He glanced at her for only a moment before scuffing the ground angrily and continuing to walk.

"Harry," she said suddenly while walking after him. "You don't have to worry your nothing--"

"But I am Hermione," Harry said while rounding on her. "I tried to deny it before, but I can't now. I am just like him."

"You're not just like him," she argued back.

Ron turned to them and was (ironically) about to growl at them for arguing when he saw something that made his face go pale. Behind the two of them walked a glowing silhouette, but only for a moment. His eyes then trailed down the floor, which was also glowing.

"Harry! Hermione!" he yelled at them, but it was too late. With a terrified scream from Hermione and a yelp from Harry the floor broke underneath them and the two of them fell.

Panic flooded Ron's body and suddenly he didn't care about any signs for a student horcrux. Harry and Hermione came before anything else did.

"Harry!" he yelled as he knelt next to the hole, "Hermione!" He received silence as an answer, which worried him more than if he had got a cry of pain.

He shot up and ran out the door again, quickly lighting the tip of his wand. He rushed down the corridor and stopped in his tracks. They had come through a door to get in this hall but he didn't remember which one it was. Ron tried to think but all he kept seeing was his friends falling through the floor.

He opened several doors but saw nothing until there was only two left. He reached foreward and yanked open the one directly in front of him only to enter a dimly lit room.

Cursing under his breath he was about to open the next door, but he stopped. Turning back around he noticed why the room was lit up at all. Sitting on the bed was the glowing figure that he had seen walk behind his friends.

"You!" he roared angrily, not caring what it was. "My friends! Why would you do that?"

The figure looked up, apparently startled, and Ron was surprised to see what it was, a glowing spirit of a woman.

She studied him for a moment before saying, "You know that evil monster?"

Now it was Ron's turned to be startled as he said, "What? What monster?"

"You are in the forbidden house boy. This was once a spot of light, but instead evil has claimed it," she said.

"Harry? Are you talking about my friends?" Ron asked, still focusing on the 'evil monster' part of her statement.

"That boy came here and took it. He took the only heirloom I had left to this world," she said bitterly.

Ron's mind reeled over this statement and he whispered in awe, "Rowena Ravenclaw?"

She stared at him and said, "Yes. Why were you with that monster?"

Suddenly it all fell into place in Ron's mind. Harry and Hermione had been arguing about how he was just like Voldemort when he was younger. If the spirit of Ravenclaw had seen Harry snooping she might have thought, in the dark, that it was Riddle again.

"What did he take from you the first time? Tom Riddle? We're trying to find the items to get them back. Those people, my friends, their names are Harry Potter and Hermione Granger," Ron said.

"You mean he wasn't the same one who took my flute?" Ravenclaw's spirit asked with worried alarm. "He wasn't the one who took that, and forced my unsettled spirit to return here unwillingly?"

Ron slowly shook his head no, and she looked very upset at what she had done.

"Follow me," she said quickly before floating by him. Ron followed her through the other door and down a set of twisting stairs. Rowena gracefully floated into a room, which Ron quickly enetered behind her. He looked around the room and felt as if he heart had stopped beating.

There on the floor, unconscious, were Harry and Hermione. He shot towards them and quickly knelt down, checking, as Neville had showed him, for a pulse. Relief passed over his face when he felt both of their pulses, they were alive.

"Why would you do that?" he growled angrily at Rowena.

"I thought he was that man, the one you call Riddle. You see, when I died I needed a way to protect this village, these people had been too good to me," she said with a dramatic sigh. "So I embedded my power into my flute, which I placed into a round case and hid in my house. It was taken though, and the power that protected these people vanished. I needed to return to try and help, but when I did, the darkness was too great for me to do anything, including go back to the afterlife. I swore revenge on the one who did this to my village."

Ron stared at his friends and said, "we're trying to defeat him. You're item, it was a flute then? I assume it had your symbol on it."

"Yes," she said. Her eyes suddenly shot towards a window and she said, "the people are awakening, you should leave now."

"Why?"

"The evil got in and changed everyone. In the magic community this place's name has changed. At one time it was Rowena, but now it is called Forbidden City. Cursed with vampires, werewolves and anything else you can imagine," Rowena warned him.

"Can I apparate out of this house?" Ron asked nervously while cluching both of his friends' arms.

"Apparate? What is that?" Ravenclaw asked.

Ron hazily remembered Hermione studying about how apparating was only a recently new discovery in magic (of course recently meant sometime in the past 200 years, give or take a few years) and he knew there would be no wards around Rowena's house.

"I can't stay, I have to help them, but thank you Rowena, you helped us find out what we needed," he said before he began concentrating on Godric's Hallow again.

Rowena watched as he vanished with a loud crack and frowned slightly. She hadn't meant to harm two young innocents, but the boy reminded her so much of the one who took her heirloom. The boy reminded her so much of Tom Riddle.

* * *

Ron apparated into the old Potter house and felt like collapsing for apparating two people with him, but he couldn't yet. He carefully carried Hermione up the stairs, deposting her on the master bed, and a few moments later heaved Harry in beside her; figuring it would be easier on him if he kept them in the same room.

He stared at them, making sure they were still alive. The damage wasn't as bad as what he had thought it would be. Rowena had obviously placed a spell on them that would make them fall but not seriously injure themselves, it sounded like she wanted to speak to Riddle.

Confusing thoughts and exhaustion passed over Ron and he slumped into sleep across his friends' legs. Before he fell unconscious one thought passed through Ron's head, a very disturbing one.

How was it possible that a ghost, even one of a powerful person such as Rowena Ravenclaw, was able to use magic?

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

Well Merry Christmas everyone! If you don't celebrate Christmas then just Happy Holidays. I know there are too many of them at this time of year for me to mention. I guess you can say this is a Christmas present from me.

I am so excited! Who else saw that book seven is called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? Morbid and creepy yes, but I still want to know about it to no end!

Unfortunately I can't get into my email right now to find the reviews so that I can reply to them, but I promise I'll do that next chapter double time, alright?

Remember criticism is welcomed, as are compliments (hinthint!...lol I'm just kidding…sort of). Just tell me what you think of this. And tell me if you think it's worth updating, because really, I'm not going to keep writing if no one's reading this. I know it sounds selfish of me but, it's kind of discouraging to see around only one review when you put a lot of effort into a story.

Also, notice this chapter has more Ron in it? This is showing that, even though I don't like his character much, I'm trying to keep him as in character as I can. And about the whole arguing over wizards and muggles that Ron and Hermione was doing. That's not to make Ron seem like a bad person, I put that in to make a point: you do not have to be a dark wizard to not understand another way of life. This might be important later, I dunno…I just thought it was a good life lesson and I needed something to put in.

Anyways…

Once again, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and I should have the next chapter up sooner, since it's Christmas break. I'll definitely have another one up before my birthday! Promise!

_**Krystal Lily Potter **_


	11. The Face of Confusion

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Eleven:_** _The Face of Confusion  
_**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes, and example of this being death. There is very little sexual innuendo, and this story IS NOT based on couples or anything. Well maybe at the end there will be some of that but it's not prominent throughout the story.

Note: There might seem to be some random characters with no point here, ones I made up, but they are all relevant in one way or another. I needed certain characters for certain things and none of the "extras" in the book worked for that…

* * *

**_  
"No person is completely original. Everyone is made up of bits and pieces of the people they meet and cherish throughout their lives." _**

* * *

_He was surrounded; he didn't know where to go. They were everywhere…he needed to get away. He tried to call for help, but nothing came to his aid. He had never been in such a helpless situation before, without his friends there to help him, that is._

_Suddenly he heard voices behind him, and turned to see his friends staring at him with amused faces.  
__  
"Help!" he yelled out to them with panic._

_Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "Why should I? You never listen to me."_

_The other person, the male, shook his head and said, "Sorry mate, you're on your own. You never even tried to understand my point of view so why should I try to understand yours? This isn't that bad."_

"_No!" he yelled at them. Evil laughter was heard around him as his two friends were divided from him by a wall of spiders. He turned around and found spiders everywhere, all of them inching closer to him with their blood soaked pincers.  
__  
"Help! I'm sorry! Harry! Hermione!" _

_But no one heard the cries of Ronald Bilius Weasley._

* * *

"No!" Ron yelled as he shot up. Breathing deeply he noticed that he was no longer in the middle of the mysterious cave of spiders, but in the main bedroom in the old Potter house. He managed to clam himself before looking at his friends. 

Harry and Hermione were still asleep, both slightly beat up from the fall they had taken, but still they looked much better than the night before.

Ron shook his head and pushed himself off of their legs, causing Harry to grunt and Hermione to shift in her sleep, but neither stirred.

Carefully, he moved across the room, away from them, and then used a spell to splash water on himself. As he let the icy liquid soak his face, hair and clothes he began to breathe more calmly. It was only a dream, Harry and Hermione would never just leave him to his greatest fears.

Ron frowned at the thought, Harry had faced his fears over and over again without hesitation, yet he was afraid when a tiny spider crawled anywhere near him. It was something that Ron was very ashamed of.

He dried himself off with another spell before looking at Hermione and Harry. He knew that he got jealous of Harry more often than he should, but it was hard, seeing Harry get everything he wanted. And it was even harder having two very talented friends, both of whom were smarter than he was, succeed in nearly everything they did. Harry was the natural leader, the one everyone looked up to, and Hermione was the brains of the operation, the one to go to for advice, but what was he? The sidekick who made the mood lighter by making a couple wise cracks?

Ron sat down on the floor, even after six years of friendship he still didn't know where he belonged, and he was wondering if he did belong with them.

His head shot up when he heard the bed creak, and he saw Harry sitting up with a confused look on his face. Ron stood up again and Harry's head snapped towards him.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I'll explain when Hermione wakes up. You two took a nasty fall," Ron replied, pushing his own morbid thoughts out of his head for the moment. His friends were more important than his own internal whining right now.

"Alright. And…er…"

"What?"

"Have you seen my glasses?" Harry asked, as if embarrassed.

Ron slapped himself for not noticing it. What kind of friend was he? He and Harry had shared a dormitory for six years and he hadn't even noticed that Harry didn't have his glasses on. They must have broken in the fall!

"Er…"

Harry sighed and then said, good naturedly, "It's alright mate. You got us out alive, and that's what matters, not a pair of stupid glasses."

Ron smiled at him and said, "Well we can't have you running around blind. You'd run over to Voldemort and tried to shake his hand, thinking it was Remus or something."

"Probably," Harry said with a snort. "But that's what we have Hermione for! She'll think of something to do."

"I'll think of what?" Hermione's voice said groggily. She slowly sat up and looked from Harry, to Ron and back with confusion.

"We fell, remember?" Harry reminded her.

"And I saved you guys," Ron added with a grin, causing both of his friends to smile at him.

"Well then than you Ron. Harry, where are your glasses?" she asked him.

"Those got smashed apparently," he replied.

"Oh. Well we can conjure a new pair but…" she stared at him for a moment. "That just shows…yes that's a physical weakness."

"Thanks for making fun of me! Why not just call me four eyes!"

"You don't have four eyes," Ron said suddenly, causing both of them to laugh.

"No Ron, that's a muggle insult used to describe someone with glasses," Hermione replied between giggles. "But that's not what I meant. I was thinking…maybe we could get you contacts Harry. Then you could have those BUT we could get you frames for glasses as well. So if they fell off the enemy would think you're…impaired…"

"But he wouldn't be!" Ron exclaimed. "Brilliant! We should try to think of something like that for all of us, something to throw the Death Eaters off with!"

"That's a good idea," Harry agreed, "but before we do that. Ron…you said when Hermione woke up you'd explain what happened."

Ron stared at Harry and suddenly didn't want to tell the story. His mind flashed back to what he and Hermione had been arguing about back in the house; how Harry said he was a lot like Tom Riddle had been. That had been the reason Rowena's spirit broke the floor underneath them; Hermione had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He had to say something though; both his friends were staring at him expectantly. Taking a deep breath he said, "It was a ghost."

"A ghost?" Harry and Hermione asked at the same time.

"Not just any ghost. The Ghost of Rowena Ravenclaw," he explained. "She didn't see me in the corner and only heard you two arguing so she broke the floor under you, thinking that you were intruders. I told her we were looking for her item and she said that a monstrous person stole it years ago. It was a flute."

"Of course!" Hermione shouted while trying to stand up. The fall seemed to have hurt her more than she realized as she winced and fell back onto the bed.

"Hermione," Harry said with worry as he put a hand on her shoulder. "Sit down."

"I need my book Ron," she said while staring at the red head.

"Which one?"

"Hogwarts: A History," she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Once Ron brought her the book she started flipping through it insanely fast. Finally she stopped at a page and exclaimed, "Look!"

"I can't read that," Harry reminded her.

"Sorry. But I knew I had heard something about Ravenclaw, but I couldn't remember where I read it. I assumed it was in a book I read in the library but it was really in this! It says right here "Rowena Ravenclaw was a known musician, especially when it came to the flute. Her music was known to sooth even the most wild of beasts. It is said that her favorite instrument to play was, indeed, the flute, and she even had one made especially with her that was legend to have some kind of magical properties." It was a flute!" Hermione explained.

"It must have been in a case," Harry said. "That's what I saw roll on the floor."

"Yeah, and the power…apparently she put some of her magic into it to keep the village of Rowena safe," Ron explained.

"You would think that we would have heard of Rowena before, the town that is," Hermione said thoughtfully.

"It's not called Rowena anymore. Lily must have been looking at a very old map when she found it. It's called Forbidden City now," Ron explained.

They continued to discuss the flute of Ravenclaw, trying to figure out where Riddle would have placed it. All the while alarms were ringing in the back of Harry's mind.

_Why do I have a feeling I should know where the flute is?_ He thought as he listened to his friends talk of Rowena's remaining item.

* * *

Neville sighed as he tried to charm a shield to have a rebounding charm on it, but he was having very little luck with that. Beside him Susan Bones were tapping at her shield, having charmed it ages ago. 

"Why are we just sitting here?" she asked him suddenly.

"What?"

"Well," Susan said while sitting up straighter. Everyone around was listening to her, including Professor Flitwick. "Why are we sitting here just charming shields? We should be working on voiceless magic, or dueling or something else that would help us."

"Why do you think that Miss Bones?" Flitwick asked with interest.

"It's – well…" Susan trailed off, not able to explain it.

"We all know that You-Know-Who," Dean said suddenly. "Is going to end up here at one point or another. Dumbledore isn't here anymore, it's bound to happen."

"Yeah," Lisa Turpin agreed from behind them. "And we should know how to defend ourselves so that we can get away."

The four remaining seventh year Gryffindors stared at each other for a moment before Seamus added, "Or fight to the death, if that's what we need to do."

"I agree with you all," Flitwick said. "But the governors allowed us to reopen Hogwarts only if we kept everything in normal order."

"Over half the school is missing though," Ebony Moon, one of the few remaining Slytherins pointed out. "We don't even know if we'll see them or our families again."

Flitwick stared at them all before saying, "Very well then. Put away your shields and we'll practice the shield charm then, instead of just rebounding charms, which are only good for small, basic spells."

The students all eagerly listened to their teacher teach them how to throw off many curses, hexes, and jinxes. Everywhere in the school it seemed as if all the students knowingly revolted as one, and all the teachers began teaching how to fight, defend, heal and many other things they might need to know in battle.

All the teachers agreed in a meeting that night to keep this hidden from the public, to make everyone think that Hogwarts was just business as usual, but it was far from it now. There was a countdown now, and they were doing all they could to prepare everyone before the timer reached zero.

* * *

Dr. Marlow Watson looked up as three teenagers walked into his store, a girl and two boys. He watched them with interest, noting that the girl seemed to be leading the black haired boy around smaller jobs that he was about to run into. 

"Can I help you?" he asked them curiously.

"Yes," the girl answered. "My friend here needs a pair of glasses, his got smashed in a fall, and we were thinking maybe contacts as well since he's very athletic and active."

Dr. Watson stared at the raven haired boy and said, "Certainly, but I'll need to do an eye examination first, if that's alright."

"Of course," the female said with a radiant smile before the boy could reply. "Right James?"

"Er…yeah," the black haired boy said. "Sure Jane."

The red head grinned at 'James' and 'Jane' before shaking his head.

Dr. Watson went ahead with the test, asking 'James' questions about what he could see. He then put several different layers of glass over his eyes, to see what kind of glasses 'James' would need.

"This is how my glasses were before," he said suddenly.

"That high?" Dr. Watson asked with wonder.

"He's pretty blind," the red head said.

"Shut it Billy," Harry snapped at Ron.

Dr. Watson ignored their exchange and changed some of the lenses before saying, "how's that?"

"It looks…clearer!"

"I thought it would," Dr. Watson said with a smile. "Too strong of glasses can make your vision more blurry. When was the last time you had an eye appointment."

"Never?" Harry said hesitantly. "My aunt and uncle just brought me my first pair when I was young and then I just got a new pair with the same strength."

"Going around with unnecessary glasses on," the doctor said with a sigh. "Of course this prescription will be much better. Now you mentioned contacts, are you thinking of clear or colored ones?"

"Actually," Hermione, aka Jane, butted in. "We wanted those ones you don't really have to worry about throwing out every night. We're doing a bit of traveling you see and it would be very inconvenient. Colored would be good too, perhaps a bright blue or something similar."

Dr. Watson looked at Harry who just shrugged and said, "Whatever Jane thinks."

"How long do you think we need to wait for them?" Hermione asked.

"Well come over here and look at the frames. I also have a wide variety of colored contacts that you can also choose from…"

* * *

"That was interesting," Harry said as he blinked his eyes a couple times. 

"There," Hermione said while staring at him, "the clear contacts look fine."

"Why did you get colored ones too then?" Ron asked with confusion.

"Disguise without using magic. Harry's eyes are a very rare and noticeable color so if we need to change our looks, that's one way he can do it. We'll also need wings too and maybe sun glasses or something stupid like that," Hermione said as the three of them walked through the park in the town they had been in to go see the optometrist.

"Could we just use glamour charms? Or transfiguration?" Ron asked with confusion.

"I thought about that," Hermione explained. "Before I realized it was a bad idea. I remember Harry explaining how he could feel some magic and I realized that more experienced wizards must be able to feel magic even more, meaning if we used a glamour charm to hide our appearances they would probably feel the magic on us. If we use wigs and simple muggle things like that no one will know the difference."

"It's a good idea, unless you meet an occumens," Harry said before he stopped walking. "How far away are we from Grimmauld Place?"

They stared at him before Hermione said, "It's not that far from here."

"Could we apparate there?" he asked.

"I suppose, but do you want to?" she replied.

"We need to get there at one time or another," Ron said. "We've been in Godric's Hallow for so long and we can't find anything else useful there so we might as well go somewhere else."

"I guess," Hermione eventually agreed. "But we must be careful; the wards around it that Dumbledore placed have probably all fallen since his passing."

"So we're going?" Harry said.

"We're going," both of his friends agreed.

* * *

Harry, Hermione and Ron carefully opened the door to Grimmauld Place and entered cautiously. The house looked dirtier than it did the last time that they had seen it, and much darker. 

"Wait," Hermione hissed at them before they could take another step. "_Silencio_."

"What was that for?" Ron asked as he stared at his feet.

"So no one would hear our footsteps. We should have done that ages ago," Hermione said before they moved towards the stairs. Harry started climbing then first and winced as the stair gave off a loud creak. He looked back at Hermione who shrugged.

"I didn't silence the stairs."

"Thanks for that," Harry muttered as they quickly moved up the stairs. Mrs. Black had yet to start yelling, which was a good sign on their part.

Hermione soon took the lead as they headed towards the library. Harry had no clue where it was, but it was obvious that the bookworm of the group did.

They cautiously, and silently, entered through an old door revealing the library to them. It was a large room with many old and dark books. Some of them had very strong magic radiating off of them, enough dark magic to give Harry the shivers as he sensed them without a problem.

"Look for something about horcruxes. A dark arts or ritual book perhaps," Hermione said as she rushed into a row of books.

The two boys also split up, and it was Ron who came barreling back into the main part of the library later on with a large book and a wide smile on his face.

"In here, this whole book is dedicated to horcruxes!" he cried out happily.

"That's great," Hermione said, with equal amount of enthusiasm when Harry shushed both of them. They stared at him silently before hearing what he heard: voices coming from downstairs.

They quickly ran into the stacks of books and hid behind one as the voices grew nearer.

"This door wasn't open the last time we were here," a female voice said.

"Yes it was, I don't remember closing it," the male said as he entered the room. "See, there's no intruders, mother."

Harry didn't hear what else was said. He felt his heart thumping wildly and he heard his blood rushing through him.

Standing in front of them, not knowing that there was anyone else in the room, were Narcissa and Draco Malfoy.

* * *

_Author's Note_

Ooooo what's gonna happen? Draco's the reason the Death Eaters got into Hogwarts! Obviously Harry's pissed but what's he going to do? haha ignore me I've been eating too much sugar recently!

This was more or less a little filler chapter. Nothing really important or significant in here, but whatever!

You wanna know what I realized as I was reading over what I wrote? How the charm fell after the secret keeper died? Well that would mean that the charm would have still been working on the Potter house in Godric's Hallow because Peter was still alive, meaning Ron and Hermione…and probably Harry since he was a baby, wouldn't have been able to get in there. Meh, oh well…I'm not changing all of that! Maybe that's not the way it works anyways…

Well, I have nearly the whole story planned out, but as all stories it will be altered and changed some, but I DO have the finale of the story pretty much finalized now so I know who's going to die, who's going to survive and so one. Before I didn't really have it planned, like who would live or die but now I do.

Thank you to the reviewers! I really appreciate it. As some of you might have noticed to really large reviews with lots of questions I usually reply to them by private message. If you have any questions just ask them, I'll usually either answer them or explain why I can't answer them!

Thank you to:

**_hash-hash_** - I wrote a reply for all those questions, I hope you got that and it cleared a few things up. They were all good questions and if you have some more feel free to ask!

_**holimontski **_- yes Harry and Hermione are the ones fighting more. I am getting to something else with that. Also I don't want to make Ron seem like a complete ass in this because even though I don't like the character of Ronald Weasley much I do understand that he is important.

_**pupadawg66 **_- Remember how, in an earlier chapter, Harry apparated himself and two other people and was completely exhausted? Well Ron apparated two unconscious people and he's not as powerful as Harry so he collapsed for the same reason. My birthday's January 11 and see, I updated before then! Actually there will be another update very soon too!

_**thisDuckisQuackers**_ - I'm trying to leave the whole romance thing open because judging from my other stories everyone knows which couple I support but I might not go with that one in the very end. Maybe I'll make Krum come back! lol! We'll see. I already have the ending in mind but it might change some...

Hope you liked this chapter!

_**Krystal Lily Potter **_


	12. To Find a Thief

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Twelve:_** To Find a Thief  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure, Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes such as death (no this story does not contain any sex so if people are looking for that then I'm sorry to disappoint you)

Just so you know there are no "couples" in this story, no major romance or anything else…possibly a little flirting and so on but nothing huge so no one has to worry about H/Hr or H/G and all that nice stuff because I don't care about it…

* * *

"**_You can't lose something you've never had."_**

* * *

"_Draco, Draco, you are not a killer."_

Draco Malfoy shook his head violently as he followed his mother into Grimmauld Place. That voice had been haunting him for months now, ever since he had fled Hogwarts with Snape. It followed him everywhere, like an evil spirit, always repeating the same couple sentences.

H tried to focus his thoughts onto the mission at hand. He and his mother, as rightful heirs of the Black Family, were able to get into the house after the wards had fallen. It was because of this that they were assigned to go to Grimmauld Place on a regular basis to see if any Order members returned, or to see if anything was left behind.

Much to Narcissa's dismay much of the house had sealed itself, so they only had limited access, something neither of them had mentioned to Voldemort. Lord Voldemort was not happy with the Malfoy family at the moment. Yes, Dumbledore was dead, and that was his main goal at the time, but Draco did not kill him. Always loyal Severus Snape had to step in and do the deed.

"_Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts…so feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart as really been in it…"_

He squeezed his silver eyes shut tightly, causing his mother to give him a worried glance. When he opened his eyes he shook his head, motioning that nothing was wrong.

"_I don't think you will kill me, Draco. Killing isn't as easy as the innocent believe." _

_Stop it_, Draco thought. He did not want to hear the voice of the late Albus Dumbledore in his head anymore; he didn't want to remember anything from that night.

"…_I can help you, Draco."_

The two Malfoys entered Grimmauld Place silently, neither one speaking. They carefully started searching, searching for evidence that there was someone in the house.

"…_come over to the right side, Draco…you are not a killer…"_

They walked up the stairs, Draco still cursing the voice in his head.

"This wasn't open," Narciassa whispered suddenly.

"What?" He asked, snapping out of his daze.

"This door wasn't open the last time we were here," she said while pointing to an open door down the hall. Draco stared at it, realizing it was the library, which had been sealed shut the last time they were here.

His mind ran quickly and, without thinking, he said, "Yes it was, I don't remember closing it. See, there's no intruders, mother." He entered the room while he was speaking and noticed, quite clearly, that there was a rectangle lacking dust on the table, meaning a book had just recently been removed from that spot.

Draco would have swore he heard some shuffling from his left, but he dared not look and draw more attention to that area. Narcissa stared at her son and said, "Alright. This place is clear, we should leave."

"Can I stay and…look for this book that I want?" Draco asked quickly.

Narcissa looked nervous for a moment before nodding her head and she quickly left. Draco didn't move from his spot staring at the door until he heard the sound of his mother apparating. He started to turn around when he heard a small scream and before he knew it he was thrown and pinned against the wall.

Blinking away the confusion he found himself face to face with the last person he expected to be. Pinning him against the wall, with an expression that was far beyond rage, was Harry Potter.

"Harry," another voice said as Hermione flew from the shelves. "Harry put him down!"

"Why should he? Bloody git deserves it," Ron argued as he too appeared.

Draco was starting to feel light headed, Harry was cutting off his airway. Harry stared at him for a moment before removing his hands, causing Malfoy to slump to the floor, gasping for breath.

"You have ten seconds to start talking Malfoy," Harry hissed while digging his wand into Draco's throat. "Talk or I swear to god you'll regret living."

"You won't kill me, Potter," Malfoy managed to choke out.

"I didn't say anything about killing you, did I?"

They stared at each other before Draco said, "I didn't kill him."

"You're the reason he's dead! You let the Death Eaters in!"

"It was your side's fault for alerting Snape!"

"Someone else in that room would have killed him! At first it was you but then Greyback and those other two, Amycus and Alecto, or whatever their names were. They would have willingly killed Dumbledore if Snape hadn't shown up!" Harry roared at him.

"Harry, please be quite," Hermione said while twisting her hair nervously around her finger. "Someone might come looking for him."

"I didn't know you cared, Mudblood," Draco said, and automatically regretted it as Potter punched him in the face. Blood gushed out of his nose, and he was positive that it was broken, but Harry didn't flinch at seeing the blood.

"Don't you dare call her that," Ron growled from a few feet away.

"Stop yelling!" Hermione yelled at them. "Someone will know we're here!"

"Why are you here? I never figured you to be one to skip school or to let them skip."

"Why are you here?" Harry asked slowly. "Why are you in my house Malfoy? Oh yes, this is my house. Sirius was the last Black and he gave everything of his to me, this included."

"I have to be here."

"Still doing Voldies business?"

"Still doing Dumbles?"

They glared at each other. Harry suddenly backed away from Malfoy and said, "Get out of my sight Draco, and don't tell anyone you saw us."

"Or what you'll kill me?"

"Just don't."

Draco, Ron and Hermione all seemed surprised that Harry was letting Draco go, just like that. Malfoy didn't want to find an answer though, he quickly took off out of the room, knocking several books to the ground, and down the halls.

Draco Malfoy wasn't sure what came over Harry Potter, why he had gotten away as easily as he did, but he was glad. Something about Potter, the Harry Potter he had met at that house, seemed more terrifying than Voldemort could ever be.

It was only later that Malfoy realize Harry had described the scene in the tower, everyone who was there. And suddenly he knew who the other broom in the tower was for. No wonder Potter was so furious, he had seen Snape kill Dumbledore.

* * *

"Why did you let the ferret go?" Ron asked with shock. 

"I don't know," Harry said. "I just…thought I should. I knew I had to…"

"You were trusting your gut Harry," Hermione said after a moment. "It's just what you do."

Harry nodded, turned his eyes to the floor, and gasped. He reached down quickly and grabbed the book on the floor.

"This is it! This is Slytherin's locket!"

Both his friends eagerly grabbed for the book and sure enough there was a picture of Slytherin's locket of the page.

Now it was Hermione's turn to let out a great gasp, causing both the boys to look at her.

"I've seen this locket before! When we were cleaning out the house! Oh," a look that Harry only seen when Hermione had figured out a puzzle crossed over her face as she held that book close to her and took off out of the room.

The boys chased after her, Ron still holding the book on horcruxes. They found Hermione in the room with the Black tapestry on it. Hermione knelt down near the bottom and said, "Here! It's here! I never even thought…"

"You never thought what?" Ron asked as he knelt down on one side of her.

Harry knelt down on her other side, and his heart began to race as she said, "R.A.B! Harry, do you remember Sirius telling you about his brother?"

"Yeah, Sirius said that he was a Death Eater and he tried to get out, but he was killed by some random Death Eater. Rumor had it though that he was killed by Voldemort himself. Sirius didn't think he was important enough to get killed by him though," Harry said. "Why?"

"I bet he was killed by Voldemort directly, and for a damn good reason. R.A.B Harry! Regulus Arcturus Black! Voldemort killed Regulus because he got to the horcrux and hid it! Hid it in this very house!" Hermione exclaimed, not caring how loud she was.

"It's here!" Ron said with confusion. "How do you figure that?"

"The locket we found before fifth year! When we were cleaning this house! Remember Ron, none of us could open it so we decided to…scrap it," Harry said with a groan.

"Maybe Kreacher stashed it somewhere?" Ron suggested.

"Do you feel it Harry?" Hermione asked suddenly.

"What?" he replied with confusion.

"Well you felt darkness in Ravenclaw house, and coming in here, and I imagine you felt it around the journal, so do you feel the same darkness in here?" she questioned.

"I…no…now that I think back though, I did feel the diary, I felt something powerful from it but I didn't identify it as evil back then. It's the same with the locket when we were looking at it," he said after a moment of thought.

"I can't believe we had it," Ron said with a sigh. "We all actually held the horcrux and didn't even think anything of it. None of us even noticed the Slytherin markings on it."

They both nodded and Hermione asked, "So where would it be now?"

"Dung," Harry said suddenly, causing both to look at him. "Mundungus! He was stealing things from this house to sell! Remember! I completely flipped out at him for selling Sirius's things!"

"I bet he took it and sold it to someone," Hermione said with a groan.

"How do we find him though?" Harry asked.

"I think I know," Ron said and their attention shifted to him. "We go to his partners in crime. I bet Fred and George would know where he is!"

They all met each other's gaze as Harry said, "Diagon Alley it is then."

* * *

It was a normal day in Diagon Alley, at least normal for these days. Tom, the bartender, had very few customers, but he kept open every day of the week to watch over the entrance to the Ally. He felt like some sort of keeper, to protect and alert those inside. 

Ever since Dumbledore's death it had gotten darker, there seemed to be no light in sight. Adding to that problem now was the fact that Harry Potter had not returned to Hogwarts, and no one in the wizarding world had a clue where he was.

Tom looked up as he saw three young people pass through. He didn't give them much of a look, the dark detectors he had hidden behind his counter were silent and still.

"Hurry up Billy," the girl snapped. "I want to go."

"Sorry Jane," he said sheepishly, pulling himself up from where he tripped.

"Stop arguing," the second boy said as they passed into the back ally to get through the secret passage.

Tom hadn't even given them a real good look, otherwise he would have saw some black sticking out of the brown wig the boy with aqua eyes was wearing, along with a lightening bolt scar.

"Harry," Hermione hissed once they entered the ally. "Your hair's sticking out." She quickly tucked it back in his wig.

"Lets get this over with," Ron said to them.

"In and out fast, before then can get a hold of anyone," Hermione agreed.

"I don't think they'll tell anyone," Harry said as they approached Weasley Wizard Wheezes. The Ally was pretty empty, but there still were a few wizards and witches roaming around. The trio was the youngest people there though.

As they entered the brightly lit shop Fred, George and Lee Jordan all looked up eagerly. They were playing cards on the counter, since there were no people in the shop.

"Hello!" George said happily.

"How can we help you?" Fred added with a big smile.

"We'd like to know where Dung is," Harry said as he pulled off his wig.

"Blimley! Harry!" Lee called out with surprise.

"Where have you been?" Fred asked.

"Mom's been having kittens over you three," George agreed while staring at Ron and Hermione, who kept their disguses on.

"None of your business," Ron snapped at them.

Hermione straightened Harry's wig on his head again before saying, "Can you just tell us where to find Mundungus? It's really important."

"Why?" the twins asked together.

"He has something of mine, something he stole from Sirius," Harry said slowly. "And I want it back."

"Sorry mates, we haven't seen Dung in a while now," George said.

"As far as we know though most of the things he sold went to Knockturn Alley," Fred said.

"That would make sense," Hermione agreed. "With the Black crest on the items I imagine that, and an antique store is the only places he could get rid of them for a price."

"Thanks," Harry said as they started to leave.

"Hold it!" Fred called out.

"What makes you think we won't tell mum you were here?" George asked.

"Yeah, the whole wizarding world is looking for you Harry."

"What are you guys up to?"

The three friends shared a look before Harry said, "I can't tell you that, but it's really important. When this is over we'll be back though. Tell your mum that from me."

"Tell them that we wanted to come," Hermione said, referring to herself and Ron. "Tell them that our time to back out of all of this came and went years ago."

"And make sure they know we're alright," Ron agreed as the three of them left.

The twins and Lee (who had less of a clue what was going on) all stared at the spot where the three of them had been moments before.

"Are you going to tell your mum?" Lee asked them.

"In a little while," one of the twins said.

"A few days maybe," the other agreed.

"It'll give them a chance to search Knockturn Alley for what they're looking for."

"Great minds do think alike, don't they Gred?."

"Yes they do, Forge, yes they do."

* * *

**_  
Author's Note_**

This chapter and the last one were finished the same day, I dunno why the email alerts didn't work when I posted chapter eleven…

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this last two chapters. I'm working hard to the next ones finished before school starts again, because once it does updates will be slow probably. My goal is to get this done before book seven comes out and we don't know when that is! Haha!

Also, all those quotes at the top, the ones 'haunting' Draco, were directly taken from book six, just before Dumbledore dies. As you all probably know it was Albus Dumbledore who said that!

Well if you have any questions, suggestions or comments leave them! I always get back to everyone to reviews in one way or another

**_Krystal Lily Potter_**


	13. The Right Direction

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Thirteen:_** _The Right Direction  
_**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure, Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes such as death (no this story does not contain any sex so if people are looking for that then I'm sorry to disappoint you)

* * *

Disguises in place, all nervousness hidden, Harry, Ron and Hermione carefully treaded into Knockturn Alley. Hermione stopped in front of Harry for only a moment to see if his scar was showing at all. Satisfied that it wasn't they proceeded down the darkened alley.

"It's so cold here," Harry whispered after a moment.

"No it's not," Ron argued. "It feels the same as in Diagon Alley to me."

"It's the magic," Hermione whispered. "James is feeling it."

With her words they knew they were back with their fake names again. The names were terribly obvious if anyone had studied the three of them and their history. They each used their middle name, except for Ron. Ron despised his middle name with a passion, hence the reason he decided to go with the name Billy Whalen instead. Ron wasn't the only Weasley who didn't like that name. The eldest Weasley, Bill, also carried the name Bilius as his first name, and despised it as well.

Harry had no problem introducing himself as James Porter. He found the name terribly obvious (more so when he wasn't wearing a disguise), but it was the best they could think up on a whim. Hermione took the name Jane Garnier without a problem. She didn't have to worry about anyone figuring out who she was from her name, she was only muggle born and no one would bother looking up information on her, unless they were trying to harm Harry through his friends. But, luckily, no one gave their fake, common names a second thought yet.

That thought went through Harry's mind and he wasn't sure whether he wanted his friends to stay with him, where he was sure they were alright at the moment and where he could protect them; or back at Hogwarts where they would be out of the front lines for a moment at least.

It wasn't his choice though, he accept that grudgingly. It was there's, and their time to back out had come and gone years before.

"I don't like this place," Hermione whispered from her spot in between the two boys. "I don't like it at all."

"At least you aren't feeling this place. It's cold and very…haunting," Harry replied. "I noticed it a bit before, but nothing like now."

"You're stronger now," Hermione observed. "You're more powerful James, but…well we'll talk about it later ok?"

He stared at her for a moment and said, "Alright. Where do we look first?"

"What about where he used to work?" Ron suggested. The three of them shared a look and figured it was as good a place to start looking as any, so they headed down the darkened alley.

* * *

"Remus," Tonks said as she sat down across from him. "What's the matter?"

"Everything's fine," he said with a forced smile.

She frowned at him and said, "Don't lie to me. This has to do with Harry, doesn't it?"

Remus looked older than he really was now. He usually had bags under his eyes from lack of sleep, lines from worry began to show on his forehead and he always looked much more tried than normal. His appearance reminded Tonks strongly of how he usually looked on the eve of a full moon. But that time of month had come and gone already.

"I feel like I'm letting them all down: James, Lily and Sirius. They all wanted the best for Harry, even when Sirius was on the run Harry was always the one he tried to benefit. Now that I had to step up and take charge as the last link to the past that he has, he's gone and vanished. All of them, including Albus, must be frowning down on me from wherever they are," Remus said with a sigh

Tonks moved from her side of the table and sat beside him, putting a comforting arm around him. She shook her head and said, "That's not true. Harry had something important to do, we all know that. And he will be back once this is all over. Plus, if it makes you feel any better, there is some solid proof that he's alive."

"What? But the papers say—and the order hasn't heard anything…"

"Of course not, it's being held as classified by several other Aurors and myself," she said with amusement. "Recently we discovered that Harry's school funds, the ones he uses to buy his school supplies every year, have been in use."

"Someone's been taking money from his account?" Remus asked with alarm.

"Harry has been taking money from his account. For what, we don't know. But the goblins confirmed that it was actually him, and the few times he went to Gringotts Ron and Hermione were always with him. He's alive Remus, and he's fine…they all are," Tonks said happily.

"Does Minerva know this?" he asked, feeling much lighter then before. For the first time in weeks a smile appeared on his face.

"No," she said, almost as if ashamed. "No, we voted not to tell her."

"Why not?"

"It seems like the best decision. It's nothing against her but…the Order is falling and we all know it. I can see it in her eyes, she might be a very good replacement for Dumbledore in Hogwarts, but for his Order? If we told her, she would tell the Order so that we could all keep tabs on his accounts to try and grab him while he's leaving the bank…"

"But we wouldn't be the only ones," Remus agreed. "You're right; the Death Eaters seem to be finding out every move of the Order recently. We are falling apart, and at the worst time too. But you know, I think Dumbledore knew this was going to happen."

"Oh?" Tonks asked with surprise. "How so?"

"This isn't our war anymore Nymph. Ours was fought and won by the light years ago. As much as no one wants to admit it, this is the next generation's war: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny…all of them. They are the ones who will be on the front lines when the end comes," Remus said as he stood up. "It's not a comforting thought, believe me."

"You've been thinking about this for awhile, haven't you?"

"Yes."

There was a silence before Remus turned around and noticed that Tonks' bright yellow hair was now back to her natural black, her dark grey eyes staring at her hands with a sad expression. Before he could ask her what was wrong (aside from the obvious) she looked up at him and said, "The Order of the Phoenix has fallen, hasn't it?"

"Yes, but something else is rising in its place at this very moment, whether the leader of it realizes it or not," Remus replied. "You see, where you might have ears and eyes inside the ministry, I have them inside Hogwarts."

"Corresponding with students?" Tonks asked.

He nodded and said, "They owled me for advice on which books to use for advanced defense against the dark arts, and in return I just wanted to know what was going on inside of Hogwarts. A new Order is on the rise Nymph. But this time it has two names: Defense Association or Dumbledore's Army."

* * *

Ginny sat in the room of requirements, staring at the people in the room. Many were the same faces that had showed up two years before, some of them were new, but one thing was clear: the war had brought the traitors out of their hiding. Many Slytherins hadn't shown up that year, and the rest of Hogwarts surprised by the way those who did show up acted. They weren't cold hearted like that average Slytherin was, no these people were just normal. This made Ginny realize that not all Slytherin's were evil, despite the stereotype placed on them for hundreds of years.

Now, for the first time in years, members from all four houses sat together, talking about various things.

Suddenly there was a loud crack and everyone's attention was turned to the spot a few feet away from Ginny. A small grin appeared on her face as she tried to keep in her giggles at seeing Neville looking so embarrassed.

"Erm…sorry…but I had to get everyone's attention some how," he muttered quietly.

Quickly Ginny came to the embarrassed boy's rescue as she stood up and said, "We've decided that, these meetings we've been having, as productive as we'd like to believe they are, are not going as we wished they would. What we need to make everything go more smoothly is a leader."

"Why not you Ginny?" A Hufflepuff girl in her in year asked. "Who better to lead then the old leader's girlfriend?"

A light blush came to her face as she said, "I don't think I'm cut out to be the leader, and I'm not Harry's girlfriend anymore, unfortunately."

"The leader," Neville said suddenly. "Is more of a…professor of sorts. A few of us have been talking and decided that Harry would still be in charge once he comes back, kind of like the Headmaster. We need someone to fill in for him for now."

"You were are the Ministry with him too Neville," Ebony Moon said suddenly. "And you helped fight off the Death Eaters last year, so why don't you lead?"

Neville blushed and he stuttered, "I-I couldn't. I'm c-completely…hopeless."

"No your not," Justin Flinch-Fletchy said. "You've been doing really well after you got yourself a new wand. I think you could lead us for now."

"But I'm still learning too, I don't think I can do it," he said with a squeak.

"Think about it Nev," Dean said to him. "I think they're right, you are the best choice."

Neville shook his head violently and looked at the floor. He knew he couldn't continue on in Harry's place, it just wasn't possible. Harry was the boy who lived, not him. Harry was the powerful one, not him.

But Neville Longbottom had no clue, that at one point of time, he could have been the boy-who-lived instead of Harry Potter.

* * *

Ron's suggestions of going to the place where Tom Riddle had worked for a period of time was the most sensible one. Harry, having been to the store twice before, carefully led the way through the darkened streets. Ron and Hermione had been there once before, but at that time they had been trailing Draco Malfoy and hadn't really noticed where they were going.

"This is it," Harry whispered to them. He motioned to the shop across from them with an old, ragged sign that said "Borgin and Burkes".

"Is this place even open anymore?" Hermione hissed at him. "After what happened last year?"

"He wouldn't have known what Malfoy was doing, or at least there's no proof of that," Harry replied before walking over to the shop and opening the door. Ron and Hermione quickly followed him into the shop. There was a man behind the counter, arguing with a plump, stuck up man.

"I tell you! You'll never find a better deal than the one I'm offering!" the pompous man yelled. "I am offering ten times what it's worth!"

The man behind the counter, who was definitely not Borgin, the shop owner that Harry had seen in both his previous trips into this particular store, snorted and said, "The item that you are wanting sir, is worth much more then you can imagine."

"I beg your pardon Mr. Burke," the other man said and continued ranting, but Harry's attention had turned to Hermione who had come to a suddenly halt.

Harry looked in the direction she was staring and noticed what she was looking at: the vanishing cabinet, the one the Death Eaters used to get into Hogwarts last year, was destroyed.

"Fine! I'll get more money!" the fat, obnoxious wizard yelled before storming out the door. "You better not sell that to anyone else while I'm gone!"

"Do you think that these three kids are going to have the amount of money I want?" Burke yelled back angrily. He quickly turned to face Harry, Hermione and Ron while saying, "Can I help you with something? Oh, that was our vanishing cabinet. The ministry came in here and destroyed it while arrest Borgin, my idiotic co-owner."

Harry tore his eyes from the remains of the cabinet to the man. He walked over to him and said, "Yes, I was looking for something in particular a…"

He trailed off as he saw what was in a shielded case. Harry couldn't believe what he was staring at: Slytherin's Locket.

He looked up at Burke and said with shock, "You have the Locket of Slytherin?"

"Yes," Burke replied. "That idiotic man that I was arguing with is returning to buy it."

"How much are you willing to sell it for?"

The man let out a dark laugh and said, "You won't have the right amount of money for this kid."

"Try me."

"A thousand galleons, but even so Mr. Zabini has claimed it."

Hermione let out a hiss at the price and Ron visably winced, Harry however, looked positively alarmed. He knew that Blaise Zabini was a Slytherin in his year, but he never seemed to be actively dark like many other were. Still, he knew that Voldemort knew the locket was gone and probably had people out searching for it, and there was a good possibility that Mr. Zabini was one of those people.

"James," Hermione whispered to him. "We don't have enough money for that on us, but we can't let Voldemort get it back."

Ron's eyes darted from one to the other as he said, "How long would it take to get the money?"

"Zabini will be back before then," Harry whispered back before turning around to Burke. "Can I see it?"

"Pardon?"

"Can I hold it? You see I have a collection of Hogwarts items, Gryffindor's Sword, Hufflepuff's Cup and various other things," Harry lied.

"If you stay right here," Burke said after a moment. He carefully removed the charms and allowed Harry to hold the locket.

Harry felt as if ice had shot through his veins when he touched the locket. His scar started to prickle with pain and he felt as if Voldemort was in the room with him, which was partially true in a way.

Quickly Harry nudged Hermione's leg. Before anyone in the room could blink she said, "Oblivate!" Burke had a blank look on his face as the three of them rushed out of the shop, Harry quickly pocketing the locket so that no one would see it.

"I wiped out enough of his memory," Hermione said as they walked towards Diagon Alley. "So that he won't remember us being in the store."

"Better not talk about that too loud," Ron said as they walked onto the lit street.

"Shh," Harry growled at the two of them as an angry Mr. Zabini stormed by them and back down into Knockturn Alley. He wouldn't be happy when he returned to the shop only to find the locket gone and Burke not remembering what happened to it.

Hermione quickly shot a spell at Zabini before dragging Ron and Harry away from the scene. The man had stumbled forward, startling the people around him.

"What was that for?" Ron growled at her quietly.

"That Billy," she replied, "was so he wouldn't remember that there were three teenagers in the shop."

"We need to go somewhere to talk quietly," Harry said as he led the way back towards the Leaky Cauldron.

"But where? Godric's Hallow isn't that good of a place to sleep in, and Grimmauld Place is out now as well since the Malfoys can enter it," Ron said as they passed through the Leaky Cauldron and out into Muggle London.

"They can enter it," Hermione started, "because there's nothing protecting it anymore. Narcissa as well as all the Blacks had permission to get in the house because of their blood, but then Dumbledore put up wards that allowed only those he wanted to enter the house in. When Dumbledore died those wards fell. I believe that's why we were able to get in Godric's Hallow as well. In theory it would have been him who put up the wards so after his death they fell, otherwise we would have needed Wormtail to tell us where it was for us to enter."

"Oh," Ron said.

"That's nice and all, but where do WE go now? We can't go back to Petunia's, she and Dudley took off, the Burrow is off limits because if we're found there then we'll be stuck there and your house Hermione…well I think that would be a bit awkward don't you?" Harry said thoughtfully.

"Yes it would, my parents think I'm at Hogwarts," Hermione explained.

"So where do we stay?" Ron asked.

"In a hotel for now," Hermione said.

Harry shook his head and said, "We don't have enough money right now and I'm not going to risk going back into Gringotts just yet. Someone's bound to have noticed the withdrawals we've been making from my account."

"Everyone's looking for us too," Ron said. "So watching your account would be the easiest way to find you."

Harry nodded as the three of them walked farther into Muggle London.

"So what do we do now? We have no money, no place to stay, no clue how to destroy that, and no way of known where the next horcrux is," Ron said with a gloomy tone.

"Think we could conjure some tents?" Harry asked. "Or rather, one larger one?"

"Yes, it's possible," Hermione said nervously. "I could do it, but Harry, we need to do something else aside from search for those."

"Like what?"

"I've been reading up on it and I think I can help you with occlumency, enough to create at least a semi good shield," she said while twisting her hair around her finger. "I've been working on legitimacy so I could test your shields…if you want me too. Plus we should start looking up spells, voiceless magic and other things like that."

"It's a good idea mate," Ron said after a moment. "We don't know what we're getting our selves into, but we all know the end is coming sooner or later, so we might as well come prepared."

Harry closed his eyes for a moment before nodding, "agreed. We'll go into the woods somewhere, deep into the woods, and start practicing and trying to figure our a way to destroy this." He took the locket out of his pocket and motioned to it.

"I can't believe we really have one," Hermione said while eyeing it. "It was lucky we came when we did, otherwise Voldemort would have it again."

Harry nodded as he stuffed it back into his pocket. This was the right locket, he was positive of it. The darkness from it flooded his mind, and he could feel Voldemort's soul within it.

"Potter!"

Harry stopped walking and turned around quickly. He felt his stomach drop when he saw Kingsley Shacklebolt heading towards them.

Ron cursed under his breath, and both boys looked surprised when Hermione grabbed their arms.

"I am such a hypocrite," she muttered before apparating in the middle of the sidewalk, taking both boys with her.

The muggles around where they had been started screaming with surprise and whispering. Kingsley gripped his wand tightly, knowing that this was his fault. If only he hadn't yelled out Harry's name until he was within an arms length of the boy; he had just been too excited by actually finding him.

"Well, he's alive," Kingsley muttered as ministry officials showed up to wipe the memories of those who had seen the three of them disappear. It was too late though, the damage had been done, because no one in the ministry, nor Kingsley, had given the woman with the video camera any consideration, since video cameras weren't used in the magical world.

The magic people's ignorance for technology would be the beginning of the undoing of not only the world they had become used to, but it would be the undoing of the world the muggles were used to as well.

* * *

"Bloody hell, where are we?" Ron asked as the three of them appeared on a beach. It was fairly cold, as the ocean waves crashed on the shore and the winds off the ocean hit them.

Hermione stumbled and fell backwards, but Harry caught her.

"And you growled at me for apparating two extra people with me," he said to her.

"Looks like we all did it now," she muttered tiredly as she clung to him. "This is my grandmother's cottage, I just thought of it when Kingsley showed up. She only uses it in June, but its hers. Who would think of looking for us at a beach home this time of year?"

"Won't be stand out though? I mean how many people use beach houses in autumn and winter?" Harry asked as he help hoist Hermione onto Ron's back.

"What are you two doing?" she growled at them in a tiny, tired voice.

Ron rolled his eyes and said, "You're too tired to walk, and obviously Harry has to check things out before we can go in, you know how he is (Harry glared at Ron jokingly). And Harry had a good point."

"No we won't stand out, there are some people who live here year round," she said. Her brown eyes scanned the area around them as Harry opened the door to the cottage and carefully looking around. Once he was satisfied that there was no one in the house he motioned for the other two to come in.

"Oh," Hermione said as she looked at Harry from on Ron's back. "I didn't even notice! You're wig fell off! No wonder Kingsley spotted you. Not many people have messy, black hair like yours."

Harry felt his head and sure enough the wig that should have been there was gone. He felt annoyed at himself for not noticing that. Pushing that out of his mind he helped Ron put Hermione on the couch.

"I won't if the tele works," Hermione said curiously.

Harry grabbed the remote while Ron looked perplexed at the box she was referring to. The red haired young man jumped when suddenly a moving picture appeared on the screen.

"Bloody hell!" he yelled with panic.

"It's alright Ron, this is normal," Harry said. "Muggles use this for news more then they do newspapers like we do."

"Really?" Ron asked with amazement.

"Yes," Hermione agreed as Harry flicked to the news station.

"A terrorist attack," Harry muttered. "The muggles have no clue who's behind it."

"Voldemort," Hermione said as her eyes started to close from exhaustion of using so much of her magic.

Harry took the locket into his hand and stared at it as he sat on one of the chairs and said, "Yes, Voldemort. This war is touching both worlds and…I'm not sure how long they're going to be separated if this keeps up."

It was a question that was plaguing the minds of not only them, but every other witch and wizard who knew how to use muggle technology. That night, on the news, was a video with three young people vanishing in the middle of a crowded street. It made all those watching, who knew the truth about magic, come to one conclusion: the magic and muggle worlds were colliding much quicker than anyone ever suspected they would.

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

So they finally have the locket? Now what? I imagine you can't just smash it, something else has to be done to destroy it. For instance Harry destroyed the horcrux in Riddle's journal because there was basilisk venom in the tooth he used to destroy it.

Well I'm off to think up some ideas on how to destroy the locket now that they have it (yeah I never thought that far ahead). If you have any suggestions or theories about how a horcrux could be destroyed your welcome to share it, but if not that's ok, I'm sure I'll think of something sooner or later.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed this chapter and the last one. I really appreciate it!

Thank you to: **_coolone007-2_**, _**TheWhiteTomb**_, _**Cappygal116**_, _**Rosiegirl**_, **_Alatoic01_** and _**xstephanie309x **_for reviewing! Right now I don't have time to write any replies but, if you have an account, I'll reply to you later through the personal message thing.

**A few points from reviews:  
**  
-This might not be H/Hr just because it's under the Harry/Hermione part.  
-Narcissa and Draco getting into Grimmauld place has nothing to do with the ownership of it and everything to do with the lack of wards that are there now. To them it's just like a normal house they're breaking into.  
-In the next chapter we'll see more training and Harry becoming more powerful  
-They got the money for glasses, contacts and everything from Harry's account, I just didn't write that part in. I skipped long periods of time and simple things like going to Gringotts.  
-The magic and muggle worlds aren't as separated as they used to be.  
-I just assumed Godric's Hallow was actually James and Lily's original house with protective wards on it, but now that I think about it because Jamse was a pureblood it would make sense that he actually had another house somewhere else.

Thank you all! The next chapter might be up before school starts, I'm not sure.

**_Krystal Lily Potter _**


	14. The Road to Winning

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Fourteen:_** The Road to Winning  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

* * *

"Blood hell! Harry you—" 

"Ronald!"

Ron's mouth snapped shut at Hermione's warning voice, his eyes never once leaving the grinning face of Harry Potter.

"You ok Ron?" Harry asked with a smug grin.

"You're a bloody prick Potter."

Hermione sighed at the two boys as she put her hands in her face. They were impossible to deal with at times but she loved them to death anyways.

The October air was cool, especially just off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Hermione almost wished that her grandmother had bought one of the cottages a little more inland, but when those thoughts would creep into her head she would push them aside. She had so much fun at the cottage when she was only a little girl with her family. Gazing at the two boys (Ron was now trying to cast silent spells at Harry who was silently blocking them) she realized that she was still at her old cottage with her family, just a different one.

"Stop," she said to them suddenly, causing both boys to look at her. "I want to give it a go."

"You can go against Harry, I'd rather not have one of your hexes coming at me, especially when I don't know what it is," Ron said as he flopped to the side to watch. Harry proved to be a natural with occlumency once he got the hang of it, it hadn't taken Hermione very long to help him get a solid wall around his mind (he was still working on it, of course, but he was progressing much better then when it was Snape probing his mind). Both Harry and Ron had struggled with non-verbal magic at first, but soon they got the hang of it and were firing spells and blocking curses sent from one another.

"You know that I'm not going to go easy on you, right?" Hermione said, almost playfully as she held out her wand.

"Wouldn't expect it," Harry said back and dodged to the side as she sent a quick jinx at him, a jelly-legs jinx if he sensed it right. That was another thing that he had gotten better at since he had sat down to actually learn, his ability to sense magic. He could even identify some of the more complex spells.

Ron watched at his two friends shot and blocked more advanced curses than he and Harry had been earlier. Part of him, recently, was beginning to feel jealous of Harry once again. His power seemed to be growing without much effort of Potter's part, where Ron had to struggle to keep up.

Then there were his current issues with Hermione. He had talked to her while Harry was asleep a few days prior, wondering what they were and where everything was going with them.

"_Ron, I can't…not now," she had said with a sigh. "I just can't be in a relationship. Maybe if last year, maybe if we hadn't been so foolish then maybe…but I can't do that now Ronald. There are more important things."_

"_Like Harry?" he had asked._

_She met his eyes with surprise and said, "Ron, Harry's just Harry and yes, the fact that he needs our help is more important than dating, but we are in a war now Ron, we have to concentrate on winning, not when the next snog is going to be or where."_

"_So all of last year was pretty much for nothing then?" Ron said angrily. "All that arguing! That's not bloody fair! Just because Harry dumped Ginny for noble reasons doesn't mean you have to follow in his footsteps."_

"_We are not having this conversation Ronald Bilius Weasley," Hermione growled at him with narrowed eyes. "Harry doesn't have anything to do with my decisions but your immaturity does." With that she had simple turned on her heel and stormed into her room._

That was another reason Ron didn't want to be on the receiving end of Hermione's wand. Although she was becoming a little warmer to him again, her temper was more likely to flare up at him now.

Harry's wand suddenly flew out of his hands and Hermione gave him a smug look.

"Keep going Granger, just because your opponent doesn't have a wand doesn't mean they're not dangerous," he said with a grin. Harry liked to attempt to dodge curses, it was helpful to be able to escape magic when a wand wasn't an option.

Once again Hermione started firing hexes at Harry and he began to dodge them. His seeker reflexes were very handy when it came to moving quickly and making split second decisions on how to move, but still even he wasn't all powerful. He stumbled when one spells missed him by an inch, landing on the floor with a loud thumb. There was another Jelly-Legs Jinx coming at him, one Hermione had fired before she realized he was down for the count for now.

Harry wished desperately that he could stop the jinx, it was harmless really but still not that pleasant. He held up his hand out of reflex to block it.

And it stopped in mid air.

Ron appeared transfixed, his eyes never leaving the stopped jinx; Hermione had a surprised look on her face and appeared to be petrified from shock.

Harry stared at it for a moment then, after thinking over what he did in his mind, he concentrated on banishing the jinx and with a tiny wave of his hand it vanished.

"Bloody hell," Hermione whispered at she and Ron continued to stare at Harry with wide eyes.

"What?" he asked quickly, but he already had a feeling he knew the answer.

"Wandless magic is nearly impossible to use mate," Ron said with awe.

"Only a few people have ever used it, let alone mastered it. It's normal for young witches and wizards to show small signs of magic using wandless magic, but nothing huge like that," Hermione explained. "The only ones I've ever heard to actually control wandless magic were Merlin, Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw and Albus Dumbledore."

"But that doesn't make sense," Harry said as he stood up. "Everyone uses wandless magic. Apparation, occlumency, legitimacy…it's all wandless."

"Well yes, but those are things that nearly everyone can do if they try hard enough. The reason I'm…we are so surprised is because of what you did. You stopped a spell with wandless magic Harry. I've never heard of that being done before," Hermione explained.

"It's true," Ron said suddenly, "that an every day witch or wizard can use it, mum and dad told me this, but only for limited things. The rest…really no one can do. Mum wishes every day that she could just wave her hand and the dishes would be done but she can't."

"So why can I use it?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," Hermione said. "I really don't know."

* * *

"_The road to winning is not always an easy one," Dumbledore said. "It's one that must be followed by instinct, and one cannot be traveled alone. You understand that the mission you're trying to pursue is a dangerous one."_

_  
The person sitting opposite from him looked up and said, "Yes, but I can do it. Or at least help."_

_Dumbledore looked down at his desk with a sigh before looking up and asking, "Why do you want to do this? Those notes you found, the ones I thought I had burned, they might not mean anything. There is no proof for my theories yet."_

"_He seems so unstoppable, so immortal, there has to be a reason behind it. I looked up Tom Riddle, I saw pictures of him when he was in school, and comparing him then to what he looks like now…the only reason I could see in such a transformation is the splitting of his soul."_

"_This will be dangerous, at any cost, you do know that right? And there is also a possibility that this theory is nothing more then that: a theory," Dumbledore warned._

"_I have no doubt about that, and I'm not afraid to do this. I believe I can find proof that Voldemort split his soul. It's the type of thing I want to do when I graduate; searching the past."_

"_You will do well; you have researched this long and hard before approaching me, something I must congratulate you for. You're potions marks are excellent, something important for clearing, and rescuing ancient documents, and your charms marks are splendid, something that many people over look as important," Dumbledore commented._

"_I can do this," the young adult said while looking down at their hands._

"_And your relationship with Mr. Potter?"_

_She looked up quickly, emerald green eyes looking surprised. "I don't think that will affect this. You can't hate a person for not telling you about their day at work if they're an unspeakable working on the past."_

_Dumbledore smiled at her, seeing the strength and willing to do her best glinting in her eyes. He nodded his head and said, "Let us hope your research proves wrong, and Riddle has not split his soul. Otherwise it could be the end of all hope…"_

_Lily Evans nodded while looking back down at her hands; the promise ring that James Potter had given her glittered in the light of the Headmaster's office. She had to find out the truth, she had to know if Riddle really was only a fraction of a person._

* * *

Harry's eyes snapped open and he stared at the darkened ceiling. After a moment of just staring he sat up, swinging his feet over the edge of the bed. He shivered as his bare feet touched the cold floor, but aside from that ignored the cool air against him as he walked over to the window. 

The moon was out, in all its full glory. He watched it with interest, wondering where Remus was at the moment, and if he had gotten any wolf's bane to keep him calm as he transformed. Harry looked over the rolling waves and across the shore. There was no one outside.

He moved around his room again, grabbing a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt. Afterwards he pulled a sweater over his head and put his trainers on his feet after sliding on a pair of old socks. Making sure to keep quite Harry cast a silencing charm on his feet so he wouldn't wake Ron or Hermione up. He grabbed his jacket and went outside.

Harry looked around for a moment before running at the edge of the shore, enjoying the bitter cold feeling of the wind against his face for once. As he ran his mind went over his dream again and again.

It wasn't an unpleasant one, that was for sure, but it confused him. Harry understood that Dumbledore wasn't positive at the time, that Riddle had split his soul, he only came to the definite conclusion of that after Voldemort attacked the Potters. He also understood that his mother would go on to become a historian for the Department of Mysteries, hence the reason she had known so many old rituals and had so many old books.

But Lily Potter had been on Voldemort's trail since she had been in her seventh year at Hogwarts. Perhaps that's where Harry's destiny had unknowingly been started, rather then on October 31, 1981, but he would never really know for sure. What he was positive about was that she had done her research, and she had known more about Voldemort then anyone else in the Order had, aside from Dumbledore, of course.

He thought back to the book of horcrux that they had found in the Black library. They had read over how to create a horcrux, and it disgusted all of them. First the person had to murder someone in order to make their soul split inside of their bodies, and then a ritual with the flesh and blood of the caster had to be done to force the soul into the object. The images and stories about that in the book had sickened Harry, and even Hermione didn't want to read the book.

It did nothing to help them figure out how to destroy one. Whoever wrote the book had never found out, Harry knew this because at the very end of the book a note from the publisher was there, saying that the person had died before finishing that part of the book. Whoever had murdered the author didn't want anyone finding out how to destroy a horcrux.

Harry continued running, staring up at the stars in the clear sky. He liked this place and decided it was the type of place he'd like to live if he survived the final battle with Voldemort. The sky was so clear, there weren't many people, and the air was fresh, it seemed to be the perfect spot in his mind. He was thankful every day for Hermione thinking of this place. He had thought their only option was to sleep in a cave or out in the woods, but this proved to be much better.

He circled back, heading towards the cottage again. The past few nights he had gotten up in the dead of night and went for a run, he wasn't sure why, he just knew that he did it. It made him feel good, perhaps because it was calming, or maybe it was because he knew he'd have a hard day of training and thinking ahead of him, he would never really know the answer.

There was some tension between the three of them again, he knew why Ron was a little angry at him, jealousy had never been something the youngest male Weasley had ever been able to hide, and Hermione had a spat with Ron a few nights before about something, so their cold attitudes to one another were understandable, and Harry just had the feeling that Hermione was annoyed at him for something.

He yawned widely as he approached the cottage and quietly walked in. He stretched his arms and glanced towards the kitchen, only to jump backwards from shock.

"Hermione, what are you doing awake?" he asked while calming himself.

"I could ask you the same thing," she said as she took a drink from the cup in her hand.

"I was restless, I needed to run," he replied while taking off his sneakers. "And you didn't answer my question."

Hermione frowned before walking back into the kitchen and sitting at the table. She looked at him with her tired brown eyes for a moment before saying, "I just keep thinking about my conversation with Ron. It bugs me really, I was so furious for him ignoring me last year and now that he really does have his attention on me I just…don't feel right about it."

Harry stared at her for a moment before asking, "This doesn't just have to do with war, does it?"

She shook her head no before saying, "I just don't think it's right…I just don't want to be with him anymore. It's terrible, I know…but…"

"You waited too long for the person to notice, and at first when they did you were excited, then it just…faded…it wasn't like you'd thought it'd be," he finished for her. "Story of my life Hermione. It was like that with both Cho and Ginny."

"We're just defects I think," Hermione said with a grin.

Harry laughed at her and said, "Yeah. That's not all that's been bugging you has it?"

"You know me to well. I was just thinking over the past couple of nights, trying to figure out where a horcrux could be, and I don't know why, but I keep looking at a map in this exact place," she said while pulling out one of the maps they always used and pointing to a small town that Harry wouldn't notice right off.

"It's stupid of me, but I just keep feeling that something's here," she explained to him. "The feeling's been driving me crazy."

"What's the town called?"

"Little Hangleton," she replied.

Harry, who had been getting himself a glass of milk, stopped suddenly and looked up at her quickly with a surprised look on his face. "_What_ is it called?"

"Little Hangleton, why, do you know it?" Hermione asked curiously.

"The Riddle house is there," Harry said after a moment. "The place where Voldemort's father lived. It's not very far from the Gaunt house."

"Then maybe there isn't anything there. Dumbledore went to the Gaunt house, you told us that yourself, he most likely would have stopped there too, the Riddle house," Hermione said.

Harry sat down again, staring at his cup of white liquid before saying, "We should check anyways. I've come to realize that hunches aren't as off as people claim them to be. But I guess we should both get back to bed, do a few exercises with occlumency tomorrow, and non-verbal magic before heading off."

"And wandless in your case," she added. "I really think that'll help you Harry, it'll give you an edge over Voldemort because he won't be expecting that at all."

Harry stared at her for a moment before saying, "We can try." He gulped down the rest of his drink before saying, "Goodnight Hermione."

"Goodnight Harry," she said as she watched him walk out of the room. She glanced back down at the map on the table before folding it again and hiding it amongst the books, just in case someone came into the house. After making sure that Harry locked the door tightly she walked back to her room and fell into a restless sleep.

* * *

"So we're going to search the Riddle house?" Ron said as he gulped down his orange juice the next morning. 

"Yes, it makes sense, Voldemort hides these things in places important to him," Hermione said as she nibbled at her toast.

Harry nodded in agreement and said, "The cave was one of the places he first realized he had power over people. He made the kids he brought with him terrified to be there. The Riddle house is also where he committed his first murders, at least that'd where Dumbledore believed that Voldemort killed first. It would make sense for something to be there."

"That was the place where you saw him in your dream, before fourth year right? Wormtail was there and he killed a muggle?" Ron asked.

"Yes?" Harry said, not sure where Ron was going with this.

"So there's a good chance that when he was there that time he would have ordered Wormtail to move it," Ron said.

"That's definitely possible," Hermione agreed. "But the Riddle house as good a starting place as anything."

"So we're heading over there now?" Ron asked.

"Practice went decently this morning," Hermione said in a serious 'Hermione' tone. "So I don't think we need to hesitate in going any longer."

"We also need to find out how to destroy these things," Harry said. "Preferably without having one of our hands destroyed on us."

"Good point," Ron said with a wince, remembering Dumbledore's shriveled, black hand and how destroying the ring had done it to him.

"Should we bring it with us?" Hermione asked after a moment. "The locket? Or leave it here?"

They stared at each other before Harry said, "I'll wear it under my clothes so no one sees it, in case we run into someone. The chain's pretty durable so it shouldn't break."

Harry quickly moved around the table, picking up the dirty dishes and placing them into the sink, making a mental note to wash them upon their return. The three of them then moved around the house, putting on their sneakers, coats and making sure they had their wands on them.

"Little Hangleton?" Hermione voiced to them.

"Little Hangleton," they both replied before all three of them apparated out of the wardless cottage.

* * *

The three of them landed with various degrees of cracks at the outskirts of Little Hangleton. Harry blinked a few times and suddenly had a strong feeling of déjà vu. With dread hanging over him he walked a few paces forwards in the thick fog, only to run into a tomb stone. This one had damage on it, damage from a curse hitting it.

"Where are we?" Hermione asked as she grasped Ron's arm while looking around.

"It's pretty eerie, isn't it?" Ron said.

"The graveyard," Harry muttered before walking towards a tomb stone. "This is Thomas Riddle's grave…Voldemort's father."

"But didn't you say that Voldemort came—oh my," Hermione said when she realized where they were. She let go of Ron's arm and stepped up beside Harry, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"This is where it happened," Harry said. "This is where he came back. Right over there is where Cedric died."

Ron came up to Hermione's other side, noticing the smashed, abandoned cauldron, and the distinct stain of blood on the grave of Thomas Riddle.

"Your blood," Hermione said after a moment, this time gripping his arm tightly. "That's yours isn't it?"

Harry nodded before he started walking towards the town in the distance. The fog was beginning to lift and they could see the outline of a large house, looming in the distance.

"That's it, isn't it?" Hermione asked.

"That's the Riddle house," Harry confirmed.

"Why is it that nearly every town we've gone to has been…death?" Ron asked.

"It's Voldemort's influence," Harry said. "His darkness destroys everything in one way or another."

"Everything, including hope," Hermione whispered as they continued to trek up to the old house.

* * *

Little Hangleton proved to be a little more populated than Rowena, or rather Forbidden City had been. As the three of them traveled up the old road they saw a drunkened man being thrown out of a pub, a tiny woman heading to the local convience store with her children, a few children playing and sights one would expect to see in a tiny village.

"What do you three think you're doing?" a shrill voice that reminded Harry strongly of his aunt yelled suddenly in their direction. They all turned around to find a woman in her sixties staring at them as if the had committed a crime.

"Umm…we were just…" Harry trailed off, unsure of what to say.

"Sight seeing," Hermione said quickly. "We've been traveling to villages with interesting pasts, and mysteries to them."

"You three look young, you should be in school," the woman said. She had an angry, fiery spark in her eyes for someone of her age. "You skipping?"

"No ma'am," Ron lied quickly. "We graduated in June."

The woman's amber eyes looked at all of them in turn, stopping on Harry longer then Ron and Hermione before she said, "You were heading up to the Riddle house."

"Yes, we heard there was a murder in there," Hermione said.

"A few years ago, the gardener died for no reason, they weren't sure what to call it but it wasn't murder, believe me," the woman said. "Now you best be going home."

Ron opened his mouth to argue and suddenly Harry said, "Yes ma'am." He nudged roughly to move and grabbed Hermione's arm, going in the opposite direction.

"Harry," Hermione hissed at him.

"We're not wearing disguises," he growled back. "That woman, she stared at my scar for a while. She's a bloody witch, I just know it."

Ron's mouth opened in shock and he said, "Harry's right…so what do we do? Is she on our side or you-know-who's?"

"That's a good question," Hermione agreed. "She seemed to almost be protecting the Riddle house."

"What do we do?" Ron repeated, this time to Harry directly.

"We go back to the cottage," Harry said in a low voice. "And get out the invisibility cloak, then come back tonight."

Ron and Hermione exchanged a nervous glance before looking back at the foreboding house, neither of them wanted to enter it after dark, but it appeared they had no choice in the matter now.

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

Another chapter done. I'm on a roll! Let's hope I don't get writer's block. This is the greatest amount of chapters I've put up in a row without having a six month pause between them! This story is turning out longer then I expected it to be. Originally I had intended for them to travel to the Riddle house last chapter and explore it this chapter, but you all know how things end up changing with last minute ideas. Oh well. Hmm we see that they're getting stronger, and Harry has some odd and interesting abilities, so it's time to see what he can do with it.

No one's mentioned it yet but before any one suggests it, Harry **_will not_** be becoming an animagus in this story, I just don't find it believeable enough for them to be able to change in less then a year when it took the Marauders three years to learn how to do that, and James, Sirius and Remus (who probably helped them with that) were all apparently really smart too, so I just don't think it's possible.

I've decided to add a tinsy amount of hints towards romance but no actual couples or anything until the end. I'm not changing my mind about what I have planned anymore. Don't worry though, it won't take from the story because there will be less than there was in the canon Half-Blood Prince.

And as always thank you to everyone who reviewed, it really helps…knowing that people like what I write. I love writing, but what's a story if there's no one willing to read it.

Well see you all next time! It's going to get more exciting later, I've already written a couple chapters and believe me, this is going to get more confusing before everything is tired together!

**_Krystal Lily Potter_**


	15. The Return

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Fifteen:_** The Return  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

**_WARNING:_** This chapter has many disturbing images in it later on. I'll start that particular part of the story with bold letters in case someone ones to skip it. I'll summarize what happens in that part at the bottom, incase someone doesn't want to read it.

There are some things in this chapter that won't make sense, and will be explained later. Why I did it, I'm not really sure; I just thought it was a different outlook on things. I really doubt anything that happens in this chapter is even likely to happen in the real story but hey, this is fan fiction and I thought it would be interesting to put a new little spin on certain things.

Besides, Harry needs to have some good things in his life, right? You'll see what I'm talking about later.

* * *

High up in the owlery in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a lone owl sat in the highest pillars out of sight, waiting for her moment to move. The owl's bright yellow eyes suddenly snapped open and a small hoot escaped her as she stretched out her great, snowy wings and took off out the window. Hedwig was a smart owl, brilliant in some natures, and new instinctively when her Harry needed her. She always knew where he was. 

She started flying, the cold air not affecting her as she headed towards the place she knew she needed to go. She had known for awhile that this day would come, and it was time to carry out the job that the old man with the long white beard had told her about so long ago.

She was honored to do such an assignment, honored more then anyone ever believed an animal could be. Besides, this mission was made for her, unlike that stupid little twit of an owl, Pig, who barely knew how to say it's own name.

* * *

"This is ridiculous," Hermione whispered as she uncomfortable squished very closely between Harry and Ron. 

"Speak for yourself," Ron muttered as he walked while bending down.

Hermione looked from him to Harry, who was also bending, and asked, "Why are we using the cloak again?"

"Just in case, you can't sense the magic of an invisibility cloak as easily as you can a disillusion charm," Harry explained.

"I think we're getting a little big for this," Ron complained a few moments later.

Harry and Hermione both shushed him as they cautiously walked past the road the old lady had stopped them at earlier. Much to their surprise the woman looked out the window, staring around suspiciously.

The three picked up their pace a little bit, Harry and Ron crouching down a bit more so that their feet wouldn't be visible. Finally they reached the edge of the gates that surrounded the Riddle house. Harry leaned over a bit so that he could see up the road and a shiver went down his spine.

"What's wrong?" Hermione whispered.

"This place just feels…evil," Harry said as he stepped around the corner. "That's the only way I can describe the feeling this place gives off, pure evil."

Ron and Hermione followed him closely as they approached the house. All three of them had growing feelings of dread as they drew closer to it. Harry carefully opened the door and was hit with a terrible smell. Behind him Ron gagged and Hermione covered her nose with her hands, tears appearing in her eyes from the smell.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"Something rotting," Hermione replied behind muffled hands.

Harry took the invisibility cloak off of them and folded it into his pocket. His green eyes looked around, watering as the stench invaded his senses. Ron and Hermione watched as he grabbed his wand, and with a silent flick a bubble appeared around his head, and a relieved look appeared on his face.

"The bubble head charm," Hermione said. "Of course, that's brilliant Harry." She followed suit, and Ron muttered the spell, not used to it non-verbally yet.

The three of them carefully walked through the dark halls, with almost no light to guide their way. Harry's hand clung tightly to his was as he cautiously walked up a familiar stair case. He half expected to hear Wormtail whispering to a humanoid creature about capturing someone, he could almost feel Nagani passing by him, but he knew she really wasn't there. It was all just memories from a dream long ago.

Hermione walked towards a door and carefully pushed it open, lighting the space in front of her with only the lumous charm. Harry and Ron took no notice to this though and continued down the hall.

Hermione's terrified scream pierced the air, causing both boys to whirl around and exchange a panicked look before running back down the hall.

"Hermione!" Harry yelled as he saw her stumble backwards out of the room. When he reached her she clung to him tightly, her entire body was trembling from fear.

"What happened?" Ron asked as he put a hang on her shoulder.

"Bodies," she whispered.

Harry stared at the room for a moment before carefully passing his female friend to Ron, and then cautiously walking forwards. He looked in the room and felt sick to his stomach with what he saw. The room was littered with the bodies of dead people…muggles from the looks of them.

He too stumbled backwards with disgust before looking at his friends and saying, "Well we know what the smell was now."

"I don't want to be here anymore," Hermione whispered fearfully. "Please Harry, can we just go."

He stared at them and said, "You two go and wait outside under the invisibility cloak. I have to keep looking, just in case."

"But—" Ron started but Harry cut him off.

"No, you guys go back and wait for me," Harry said sternly. "Just trust me, ok?"

They stared at him for a moment before Hermione nodded and tugged at Ron's arm to get him to move. There was a reluctant look on her face that Harry was well aware of, but chose to ignore.

Ron had yet to move, staring at Harry with an unsure expression. His sky blue eyes glanced at Hermione before he said, "Are you sure mate, I can stay if you want."

"Go with Hermione," Harry said. "If I'm not out in an hour…"

"We'll come looking for you, of course," Hermione said briskly.

"No," he said. "If I'm not out in an hour, get a hold of Remus and Tonks. I'm serious." He added that last part when seeing their surprised looks.

"I thought you didn't want to drag anyone else into this," Hermione said after a moment.

"I didn't want to bring you two with me," Harry said with a small smile. "But I'm glad I did. Now go." He pushed the invisibility cloak into Hermione's hands.

They stared at Harry for only a second long before turning and going back the way they came.

Once he was sure they were outside he turned around, looking down the dark halls and said, "Well Riddle, it looks like it's just your past and me now."

As if answering him the house groaned from the growing winds outside. He started walking down the hall again, not looking back to the room full of bodies again.

He walked towards the room he had seen the man in his dream, from three years ago, enter. He figured it was the best place to start, since Voldemort had chosen that room to reside in.

Harry thought over what his friends had pointed out earlier, how it was likely Voldemort had moved the cup when he had been in the house. From the amount of dead muggles that had been in that room, Harry assumed that the house was still in use, so he had plenty of time to move it to a new location.

He pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he opened the door and cautiously looked in the room. It was empty, but from the looks of it there had been someone in there recently. He walked through the room, running his fingers over the dirty surface of the coffee table. His eyes rested only for a moment on the chair he knew Voldemort himself had rested in. He continued to look around the room, ignoring the odd pictures of people on stilts.

Deciding that a visual search was useless he closed his eyes and reached out with his magic, the way he had been practicing. It had been at the cryptic hints from Sirius two years before, when they were in Grimmauld place cleaning, to reach out to feel the magic of an object to see if it had any dark magic in it. Harry began, only briefly, to try and do that during that summer, but soon with Umbridge, and his repetitive dreams of the Department of Mysteries he had completely forgot to practice feeling magic. The only reminder of it that he got, which hadn't come to him until later, had been the amazing display of how handy it was to be able to feel magic.

He ran his hands over the wall and onto the brick fireplace, when he stopped. His eyes snapped open and he stared at the brick his hand was over. The brick hadn't been sealed in the wall, just placed in there. Harry carefully dug his fingers into the cracks and pulled the brick out. There was a small compartment with a plain gold cup inside with a note. Feeling a terrible sense of déjà vu he pulled the fake cup (it was an obvious fake, when in the light it didn't look a thing like Hufflepuff's cup) and read the note inside of it.

_Riddle,_

_Your secret isn't as safe as it seems. If you're reading this then you've come to realize that the Chalice of Hufflepuff is gone, and will be destroyed soon. It's the most we can do to ensure your defeat in the future. _

_  
K.J.P_

"Not again," he muttered with annoyance. First R.A.B now K.J.P! He looked over the note again and realized what that meant.

There had been people who knew about the horcrux. And to see two different people leave similar messages, and sign it the same way implied that there was a good chance that they were working together.

All he knew was that the cup, or rather the Chalice, as the person called it, was not in the house. He went to leave them room but paused to listen. He was sure that there had been some shuffling coming from somewhere.

Harry was about to moves forwards when he heard it again, the shuffling sound along with a loud creaking noise.

He took a step backwards and was tempted to yell out to see if it was Ron or Hermione, but common sense held him back from doing so. He backed up into the room and slowly closed the door. Quickly he looked around the room, realizing he had just backed himself into a one way exit room, unless he took the window and pummeled down about three stories.

The doorknob began to shake and he quickly dodged beside a bookcase to hide himself from whoever was outside the door. When it finally open he felt his stomach drop and horror flashed through his mind. The dead bodies that had been in the other room were alive. He thought back quickly to the inferi from last year and realized that these couldn't be the same, they seemed more…gruesome then the bodies that floated in the lake that was inside the cave.

A loud shrieking sound filled his ears and he looked down quickly, seeing a feminine hand trying to grab his leg from under the bookshelf. He jumped away from it and realized too late that he was in plain sight of everything else in the room.

All the mobile bodies seemed to stare in his direction at once before slowly moving towards him. Remembering back to the room, he realized that there must have been about a hundred bodies in there.

"_Incendio_!" he yelled, shooting fire at one of them. He prayed that it would scare them away like the inferi, but his prior theory of them being different creatures proved to be true, as the fire did nothing to them.

He concentrated his thoughts and with a great wave his hand many of the creatures flew into the air. It was at that moment he made a run for the door. There were still some creatures, but he continued to throw them away with spell after spell. He managed to get to the staircase and started running down when he felt something grab his leg. He fell onto the stairs, the glassless frames that had been on his face continued to fall as he lay there. Looking back he saw an old, rotten hand holding onto his leg from a space between the steps.

Panic flooded him when the hand began to disappear into the tiny space, dragging his leg down with it. Harry struggled to get away from it to no avail.

He knew he couldn't be pulled through the space the arm had vanished into, but he worried about his leg. He yelped as the stairs suddenly started breaking under him, followed by a load crack as pain shot through him, telling him his leg was broken. Pain assaulted him as he barely noticed the stairs slowly shattering before he started falling through the hole. He was barely aware that he fell several feet and was being dragged along the floor, all his thoughts were focused on trying to send a message with his mind.

'Help,' he thought desperately, and for a moment he thought he felt Hermione trying to reach back to him, but he didn't have a chance to confirm that as his world went black.

* * *

Before the old woman had confronted Harry, Ron and Hermione that afternoon Hedwig flew viciously fast, searching for the only thing that could help her. Finally a flash of warm air passed her and she let out a great hoot. 

In return, a song filled the air and the snowy owl knew she had found the creature she was so desperately searching for. Her large amber eyes stared in front of her as fire erupted, revealing a large red and gold bird.

Fawkes had returned for one final mission.

* * *

"How's the other Minister, Kingsley?" Hestia Jones asked as she cleared off her desk. She had to file many reports of Death Eater attacks recently, whether real or simply false alarms. Already she grew weary of this war, and like many others she could clearly see, yet she denied it to no end, that their side was losing this time. 

"Worried," Kinsgley Shacklebolt replied with a sigh. "The muggles are noticing things, things not one of them can explain. Add to the fact that they have the video of Potter and his friends apparating on all of the television stations, I think we can assume the worst is coming."

"If we lose this war," she said hesitantly. "What options do those who survive have left? To join him? To run?"

"If we lose," Kingsley said. "He'll move onto the muggle world. They will try to stop him, and those of us who are left will try to help, but he'll win."

"Everything's been looking so bleak since Dumbledore died," she said with a sigh. "And now that Potter's gone and disappeared."

"At least we know he's alive," Kingsley said. "But you have to feel sorry for the kid. It's obvious that the rumors are true; I myself saw that they were in the prophecy room. It must be hard to have the weight of the world on your shoulders."

"Perhaps we were all too harsh on Dumbledore then too," Hestia said. "We all relied on him in much the same way, and now that he's gone we've all just shifted out attention to the second in line."

"I'm pretty sure Dumbledore didn't have to fight in a war when he was seventeen," Kingsley added. "Then there's all the people Potter saw killed, Albus, the Diggory boy, his uncle and Sirius…Sirius was a good fighter. Merlin, I wish he was still here."

Hestia was about to say something when music filled the room. Both of them looked up from their desks and quickly moved into the hall to see what was going on. Many other Aurors and Ministry workers all looked out of their rooms to see what was going on as well.

The music grew louder before someone yelled, "Isn't that Dumbledore's phoenix?"

Kingsley and Hestia exchanged a quick look before they both dashed into the hall and sure enough, Fawkes the phoenix flew by them, followed by a snowy owl.

"That owl belongs to Potter," Kinsley said loudly before the two of them darted after the two birds. The people that heard his exclamation started whispering. Why would Dumbledore's missing phoenix, and Potter's owl, suddenly appear in the ministry?

A few people shouted from surprise as seeing the two animals being chased by two Aurors. They followed them closely before Hestia said, "Are they heading to the Department of Mysteries?"

"That's what it looks like," Kingsley said.

They continued to follow the two flying creatures, ignoring the shouts from the Unspeakables that they passed, until they ended up in the last room that Kingsley wished they had.

"The Veil of Death," Hestia whispered in awe. "So it is more then a legend."

"What are they doing?" Kingsley asked as he watched Hedwig perch on top of it.

"You're not allowed to be in here," one breathless Unspeakable said. "You have to—what are they doing?"

"That's what we're wondering," Hestia said as she watched Fawkes fly around the room.

They all watched Fawkes fly, noticing that fire was starting to trail behind him. Hedwig suddenly flew into the air and dropped some of her feathers onto the passing phoenix, the white standing out strongly against the red and gold feathers.

Fawkes started singing again as Hedwig once again perched in the center of the arch. Everyone watching gasped with surprise when the phoenix suddenly flew into the veil. The veil began to ripple wildly, turning a pearly white shade, and the runes in the stone arch started to glow with fire. The runes, for a moment, changed to English, but it was long enough for Kingsley to read what it said.

_The purest of souls willingly trades itself for an innocent one, not yet destined to die. So let the lost one return._

The entire arch started glowing bright white and Hedwig suddenly flew down in front of the opening. She flew to one of the sides and her talons latched onto something. She began to fly backwards, hooting at the thing she was holding onto, as if encouraging it.

Hestia let out a light scream and Kingsley covered his eyes as the entire veil started to glow and then, it all stopped.

While allowing their eyes to adjust to the normal light again Hedwig landed on the ground and pecked at the thing in front of it. The thing looked up at her with startled grey eyes.

Hestia was the first to regain all of her sight and let out a loud scream at what she saw. The two other men in the room looked up quickly and were gaping in shock.

There on the floor, staring at the snowy owl in front of him was Sirius Black.

* * *

It was a few hours after Sirius Black appeared in the ministry that, while waiting outside, Hermione heard Harry's soft plea for help in her mind. 

Her head snapped towards the house and she desperately tried to reach back to him, but she couldn't find him anyone. She stood up quickly, causing the cloak to fall off of her.

"What are you doing?" Ron hissed at her.

"We have to get Remus and Tonks," Hermione said urgently.

"It hasn't been an hour," Ron said as he too stood up. She couldn't seem him but she knew he must looked perplexed.

"He tried to talk to me in my mind, he's in trouble. Come on, we need to get help before it's too late," Hermione said as she ran to the edge of the street. Earlier Harry had felt out that there were anti-apparation wards around most of the Riddle house, as well as the grounds around it. They assumed Voldemort put them up so that no one from the Order could just appear at his front door when he was still weak.

Ron clung to the invisibility cloak and dashed after Hermione. He grabbed her arm just as they left the place Harry had marked with a line of stones across the road; that was where the wards ended.

She looked at him for a moment before nodding. She concentrated on finding the Lupin house and a moment later they both vanished with a loud pop. Had they stayed a moment longer they would have heard a second, louder pop, and they would have done a double take to see a person they thought dead run by, a snowy owl following him as he ran towards the Riddle house.

* * *

**Harry groaned from pain and slowly opened his eyes. **After blinking a few times he stared at the ceiling above him, not recognizing the stone, cavern like ceilings. 

He tried to move his head up, and pain exploded in him. His head fell backwards and his eyes clenched tightly. He took deep breaths to calm himself before opening his eyes again and trying to move his arms but a sharp, stabbing pain hit his wrists. He hissed in pain and looked down, but the moment he had he wish he hadn't. Panic flooded him when he saw the sharp wires that bound his wrists to the wooden table he was on.

Braving a bit of pain he lifted his head a bit and saw that his ankles were bound in the same fashion, with razor sharp wires.

He tilted his head to look behind him and let out a panicked yell. There was a body hanging upside down from chains only a few feet away from him. The body was coated in blood, and looked like it had there for only a few days at most.

He had to fight himself from vomiting, as he slowly took in what he could of the room in his eye sight. That dead person wasn't the only one in the room, there were others and they too looked like they had been tortured to death.

It didn't take much for him to realize that this was an old torture chamber, one from before the Cruciatus curse was created. He dimly remembered Professor Binns mentioning them, but not going into detail. Harry really wished he was back in Hogwarts at the moment. His eyes snapped towards a large door as it slowly creaked open and one of the mobile bodies came into the room.

It had a slight limp to it and looked incredibly dirty, yet it was moving better then the other ones had. It was only then that Harry realized it actually wasn't one of the creatures that had attacked him, it was an actual person.

He groaned and the person quickly spun around, staring at him with wild blue eyes. It was a tall, thin woman with long, greasy black hair and a slightly insane look in her eyes. When she saw Harry was awake she let out a growling sound and started to approach him when the door flew open again, and a man walked in. The man stared at her for a moment and said, "No Freak, he's not a common one. Shoo."

Harry felt his neck hairs stand up when he saw the man. The man looked much more normal then the woman, but that was until Harry saw the metal collar around his neck that would spark ever few minutes.

"I was told to treat a boy with a lightning scar specially here, in case he ever showed up and you did," the man said with a tiny giggle. "Tell me, why the Lord is interested in you."

Harry had no doubt who 'the Lord' was. He stared directly into the insane eyes of the man and said, "Because I'm going to be the one to kill him.'

The man started giggling again and said, "Hear that Freak? He thinks he can destroy the Lord! What a funny person." The woman was sitting in the corner and started laughing along with him.

"Now," the man said as he reached to the side and pulled out a long, sharp knife. "Let's see what I can do to you."

"Who are you?" Harry blurted out as he tried to concentrate his magic.

"I am Marlow Jibson," the man said. "I was a dying, but the Lord is merciful and he gives me this to live instead (the man pointed to the sparking collar). He was always a good friend to me. Yes he was. I do this because he wants protection in this house, corpses."

Harry stared at him for a moment before remembering where he had seen him before, this person had been in Slughorn's memory, and he had been friends with Riddle and was there before Riddle asked about horcruxes.

"You were friends with him?" Harry asked, trying to keep the person talking.

The man didn't answer him though; he just seemed interested in the weapon in his hand. Harry winced in pain as the man reopened the scar on his arm, the one Wormtail had made when taking blood from Harry for Voldemort.

The man was about to do the same thing with his other arm, and brought the knife down to it when it was thrown away.

He looked at Harry with obvious surprise, and Harry noticed that the woman (Freak as this Marlow person referred to her as) grabbed the knife, proudly proclaiming, "MINE."

Marlow grabbed another knife, this one looking much more lethal than the last and brought it down to Harry's stomach, but stopped. Harry stared as the knife continued to stop in mid air, as if hitting a clear surface. He reached out and with a powerful blast of energy the wires all flew off of him and Marlow Jibson was thrown backwards. Freak screamed and Harry rolled off the side of the table, hitting the ground painfully. He managed to stand up and limped towards the door. His other leg was broken and pretty much useless to him now.

He managed to get to the door and pried it open when Freak ran at him with the knife. He help up his hand and threw her backwards with magic. **Harry then continued to limp into the hall, only to come face to face with the things from before.**

He fell down and felt almost hopeless as the creatures closed in on him, when he heard a voice yell, "Harry?"

The creatures slowly turned and some of them started screaming as they were thrown backwards and stunned. Marlow came running out of the room with his wand, but he and Freak were soon hit with strong stunning spells.

Harry stared through blurry eyes at his rescuer, nearly positive that he was seeing things.

"S-S-Sirius?" he choked out before losing consciousness again.

"Hang on Harry," Sirius said as he hoisted his godson onto his back. "Just hang on."

He ran through the creatures, stunning them as they tried to come towards him. When he got outside, not only were several Aurors running to the house, but Ron, Hermione, Tonks and Remus were rushing forwards.

They all froze and, at the same time, said in shocked voices, "Sirius?"

"No time," he muttered. "We need to get him to St. Mungo's now. Get the creeps in side, but be careful, there's a bunch of mobilized corpses in there." He said this last part to the Aurors, who rushed into the house.

Remus, Tonks, Hermione and Ron didn't say much, they just followed Sirius beyond the apparition point and vanished to St. Mungo's as he did. Just after they vanished, the clock in the center of town chimed midnight as it became November first. Something always seemed to happen to Harry on Halloween, but this was by far his worst one yet.

Circling high in the air, Hedwig was glad that she had gotten to her master on time. She had sensed this was going to happen before it did and was glad that she acted on time. No one would believe that this owl was the reason Sirius Black had returned, or that Harry Potter was still alive, no one but those who knew her. Albus Dumbledore had chosen well when he told her how to bring Sirius back to life, positive that she would do it when the time came.

After all, everyone said she was a very intelligent owl.

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

Ok for that disturbing part if anyone skipped it. Basically Harry wakes up to find himself in a torture chamber. Voldemort's old school friend is there and is the one who tortures people to death and then puts them in the room so that there are more creatures protecting the horcrux, which isn't in the house anymore. Before the man, Marlow Jibson could torture him too much Harry used wandless, silent magic to block the knives and break free. He got out of the room but there were more mobile creatures outside. The part after that (after the bold), isn't bad at all. But the gist of it is that Sirius saved Harry.

Yes I know, it was random, bringing Sirius back and all, but I love him as a character and I wanted a way to work him in without this going all Star Wars (like Obi-wan in the old trilogy) so…why not bring him back? JKR has never ACTUALLY confirmed that he's dead like she has Dumbledore, I mean we just assume he can't come back. You never know! Besides, this is fanfiction!

The only way he came back was because Fawkes traded his life for Sirius's. Sirius was innocent and it wasn't his time to die when he was pushed through the veil. So, Hedwig went to Fawkes to get Sirius back. The only reason Fawkes could bring him back was because he was a powerful creature, he was pure and he was willing.

As for Hedwig, no she's not an animagus or anything, she's just a very smart owl who has an extremely strong bond with Harry. This bond has gotten stronger in this story, as seen in this chapter, because Harry is becoming more powerful.

Now the next chapter…haha where to go now? There are so many places I can take this now! The whole Sirius thing wasn't originally planned. I had intended on keeping him dead but then, just out of no where, I thought of the rest of this chapter. Hmmm…guess Harry has to find horcrux next chapter, that was supposed to happen in this one as well. Oh well, I'm glad I wrote this. Anyways enough of my rambling.

Thank you to Harry Potter Girll, Jarno, Freedomstar, Random,Cappygal116, Demonically Angelic Neko88, and pupadawg for reviewing. Thank you to everyone else who's reading this too! I hope you guys all like it.

See ya next time!

**_Krystal Lily Potter_**


	16. The Chalice of Hufflepuff

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Sixteen:_** The Chalice of Hufflepuff  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

* * *

He could hear the voices around him, they were whispering to one another. He hesitated in opening his eyes, half expecting to see the stone ceiling of the torture chamber above his head, but when he did open his eyes he saw a brilliant white ceiling.

He looked to his right, and his left, seeing bags with several potions running through I.V tubes into his arms. One his knew was a potion for pain, another one was blood replenishing, but he wasn't sure about the rest.

Harry groaned slightly as he looked at himself. His arms were bandaged up, as well as his legs. The bone in his leg was completely healed but there were still bruises from where he had broken his leg.

The door opened, and he looked over, half expecting that insane man to walk in, but, much to his relief, it was Hermione.

"Mione," he said, his voice sounding a little scratchy.

She hadn't noticed that he was awake, but when she heard his voice and saw that his eyes were open a tiny scream escaped her lips and she rushed towards him. Carefully she hugged him tightly and started crying.

"I'm ok Hermione," he said to her. "The horcrux was there before, but it was moved by K.J.P, whoever that is."

She stared at him as if he were some kind of mutant and started crying again. She hugged him and said, "Harry, you…you were in the hospital for two weeks already and all you're worried about is the horcruxes! I was so scared…when he brought you out of the house I never…"

"I'm glad Remus showed up on time then, thanks for listening to me and getting him and Tonks," Harry said to her, not remembering the last few moments in which he had seen his rescuer's face.

"Harry, it wasn't Remus," she said after a pause. "When Ron and I got back with Remus and Tonks there were already Aurors running towards the house, and we didn't know why. Then we saw him bring you out of the house and…Harry—."

"What? Hermione what's wrong?" he asked her with concern.

"Sirius, Harry," she whispered in tears. "Sirius is alive."

* * *

_  
Sirius appeared in front of St. Mungo's, with Harry still securely on his back. His godson was heavier then he thought he would be, but then again he was gone for some time apparently. He rushed into the hospital and said, "He needs help."_

_The receptionist looked up and gasped when she saw Harry's condition. She shot silver sparks down the hall and quickly conjured a stretcher before saying, "Put him on here Mr.?"_

"_Black," he said quickly. Sirius noticed her surprised look and said, "Just get Harry help."_

"_Harry Potter?" she asked with alarm, and automatically her eyes went to his forehead where his scar could clearly be seen._

_Several healers came running down the hallway, and quickly started wheeling the stretcher down the hallway._

"_What happened to him?" the head healer asked Sirius._

"_I don't know, from what I could tell he was tortured," Sirius said. "But I'm not sure. The aurors probably have the people who did this in custody by now. They were Death Eaters."_

_The healer winced but nodded and said, "I need you to stay how here."_

"_I'm his godfather," Sirius growled. "I should be allowed in."_

"_We are going to check him over, and, if need be, we might have to do a bit of muggle surgery, and we don't want him to get any sicker," the healer said while glancing at Sirius's dirty robes._

_He nodded after a moment, and took a few steps back as the doors separating him from his godson closed on him._

_Before he could begin to feel helpless he felt a wand pressed against his back, and a man's voice spoke to him, "Who are you?"_

_For the millionth time that day Sirius felt like crying, this time from joy. He spun around and came face to face with Remus Lupin._

"_Remus, it's me, it's Sirius," he said. "I don't know how, I know I fell through the Veil of Death, I recognized it from the books my mother made me read when I was younger. I don't know how I'm back."_

_Remus only lowered his wand a millimeter before saying, "What were our nicknames and the group we belonged to?"_

_  
"You were Moony, James was Prongs, I was Padfoot and we were the Marauders. I guess there was the traitor too, Wormtail, but he doesn't count anymore," Sirius said bitterly._

_Remus knew an imposter could have found that information out, but to see the pain and bitterness in the man's grey eyes at the mention of Peter he knew it couldn't be anyone but Sirius. He lowered his wand before putting it away and giving Sirius a brotherly hug, "You're back! How? Merlin…"_

"_He's really Sirius?" Tonks whispered as she came up behind Remus, grabbing his arm. "You're sure? He's really…him?"_

"_Nymphadora!" Sirius cried out while hugging her. "My little second cousin! It's so good to see you again!"_

_She seemed a little stunned, but hugged him back and said, "How?"_

_He shrugged and noticed, behind them, a tall red head staring at him with surprise, and beside the red head was a shorter brunette, who looked terribly nervous and worried._

"_Hermione, Ron," Sirius said with surprise. They were both so much older then he remembered them, more in a mental sense than a physical sense. Hermione looked at Sirius and said, "Harry."_

_A pained look came to Sirius's face as he looked at the door and said, "They wouldn't let me in. I—he was injured so badly. Why were you there? What in gods name were you in a place like that? The look of the outside of the house should have given off warnings not to go in!"_

"_Not here," Ron whispered. "We can't say anything here. We can't let this get in the news either."_

_Hermione didn't respond to that, she just stared at her hands. Ron looked at her for a moment before continuing, "If this goes in the prophet V-V-Voldemort will know what we were doing and he'll hide the rest…"_

_They all looked at Ron, as he once again looked at Hermione for help on explaining all he could while in public. She wasn't listening to him though, she was rocking backwards and forwards on her feet, sobbing silently._

_Tonks moved forwards and wrapped her arms around Hermione, who started crying on her shoulder._

"_Tonks, I was scared," she said with a sob. "Harry told Ron and me to wait outside because I was scared. If we were with him then this wouldn't have happened. I was scared, what kind of Gryffindor am I?"_

"_Don't blame yourself Hermione," Tonks said soothingly, feeling her own tears threatening to fall. "It might have been worse if you and Ron and been in there. Harry would have been trying to protect you two instead of himself. Without you in the house at the time he was able to defend himself as best as he could."_

_Hermione shook her head and continued to cry until she fainted from exhaustion._

That memory repeated in Sirius's mind over and over again. He couldn't believe that it was a year and a half since he had fallen through the veil, and the wizarding world was in a full fledge war now. When he had gone off on a rant, wondering where Dumbledore was when Harry was in danger, Remus had reluctantly told him that Dumbledore had been killed by Snape at the end of the school year. That had come as a shock to him, as much as Sirius had disliked Snape he had thought that the former potion's master was still on their side. Then Remus had informed him that Harry, Ron and Hermione hadn't been to school at all that year, and that they were on some kind of mission that had to do with Voldemort.

Sirius was broken out of his thoughts as Remus walked over and sat across from him. Sirius looked at his old friend and, in his mind, it looked as though Remus had aged in wisdom, he could see it in his eyes, yet his friend had never looked more alive and happy. A few moments later Tonks came and sat down next to him. Sirius looked from one to the other until it finally hit him and he grinned.

"You finally got him eh Tonks? I guess I owe you money, I didn't think you could do it," Sirius said with a bark of laugh.

Tonks laughed and Remus said, "You knew?"

"That she was smitten with you? Of course Moony, my old friend, everyone knew," he replied with a satisfied look on his face. "And all I have to say is that it's about time."

Remus was about to reply when a medi-witch came over and said, "Harry's awake. That girl, Hermione, is talking to him." She turned towards Sirius and said, "I think she mentioned you already, so there shouldn't be enough shock at the sight of you to making him faint. It was something we were worried about originally."

Sirius nodded and stood up. He looked at Remus and Tonks before asking, "Where's Ron?"

"He went to the kitchen to get some food," Tonks said. "I'll go find him and tell him the good news. You guys go in with Harry."

Sirius and Remus walked towards Harry's room and Sirius hesitated to go in.

Remus smiled at him and said, "Come on Padfoot. Harry's missed you more then he can admit it. We all have."

Sirius still hesitated as Remus opened the door. Harry and Hermione looked up, the former with an extremely nervous look on his face. Remus smiled at them before rolling his eyes at the frozen Sirius and grabbing his arm, pulling him into the room.

A look of disbelief appeared on Harry's face, one that slowly changed to a look of hope, "Sirius?"

Sirius stared at him before smiling widely and saying, "Yeah kiddo, it's me."

Remus smiled as Sirius slowly walked towards Harry before giving him a hug.

Tears threatened to fall from Harry's eyes as he said, "I didn't think…you're will…they passed your will so I finally thought that was it, you were really gone. But you're here, you're here. How?"

"I don't know, all I now is that Fawkes appeared in front of me and helped me towards the opening of the veil, it was surrounded in light so I could finally see it. I grabbed onto the edge and tried to pull myself out but it was so hard, but then your owl, Hedwig, she grabbed onto me, and just her holding on made it so I couldn't fall back in, and I pulled myself out," Sirius said. "But enough about me, how are you?"

Harry looked at him and said, "I'm fine, I was only hurt a little bit, you were brought back from the dead…"

"I was never dead, I know because I wasn't in hell and I wasn't with your parents. That veil, it almost leads to another dimension. Eventually someone who's pushed in there will die, but time goes slower inside. I hadn't thought I was in there for a year and a half, only a day or two. So I wasn't brought from the dead, I was just brought back how. Now why in Merlin's name were you in that house? It's worse than Grimmauld place!"

"Last year Dumbledore and I went on a mission looking for something before he was murdered by Snape (he said that last part bitterly and Sirius knew that he had seen the actual act, but chose not to ask about it). The item we thought we found was a fake, the real one was taken years before. But there were still other items we had to find so we started searching for them. One of these items used to be in the Riddle house but it too was taken."

The door flew open again and Ron and Tonks came into the room. Ron had heard his last words and pulled a note out of his pocket and said, "The healers found this in your pocket mate. I'm glad you're alright."

"Thanks Ron," Harry said. He knew Ron wasn't good as showing his feelings but he could see the honest relief behind his blue eyes. Harry looked down at the crumbled note and said, "Yes this is it, but I don't think we should talk about this in here anymore. The walls can have ears and sometimes eyes you know. When can we leave?"

Hermione scoffed and said, "You are _injured_ Harry, we can't go gallivanting around the country right now."

"I'm almost completely healed," he argued back. "And we won't go gallivanting around; we'll sit down and explain what we're doing to these three."

"I think that's a good idea," Ron said. "I don't think we can do this on our own anymore mate, not after that. I mean we didn't expect the Riddle house to be a — slaughter house."

Hermione nodded in agreement and said, "We can all go back to the cottage."

"Why not Grimmauld place?" Sirius asked. "Harry you said my will went out, so it should be yours now."

Harry nodded and said, "It is, but when Dumbledore died the wards that I allowed him to put up fell. Narcissa and Draco Malfoy have been visiting it frequently to check for Order members."

Sirius nodded and said, "We'll fix that later. When we leave we have to do it discretely though. The ministry has managed to cover up the fact that I've returned from beyond the veil, and no one's gotten word yet of the Riddle house, if that's what you want to call it. You should be ready to leave soon."

"Hopefully sooner rather then later," Harry agreed.

* * *

It had been a few more days before the healers reluctantly released Harry. They had all remained tight lipped about what they were doing at the house in the first place, and the healers had a feeling that Potter would vanish again the second they let him leave, but they couldn't keep him locked up any longer.

Hermione had given Remus, Tonks and Sirius the exact location of the cottage, and they all apparated (Sirius insisted that Harry side-long apparate with him, just in case).

"This is where you've been staying?" Remus asked them as he looked around. "It's nice."

"After Kingsley almost caught us," Harry explained. "Before that we were staying in Godric's Hallow."

All three adults looked up with surprise before he said, "We didn't clean it up, it was just…shelter from the outside. I found mum's diary as well as an old book of ancient magic, along with other things."

"Is this all connected to what you were doing in the…Riddle house?" Tonks asked curiously.

Harry nodded and glanced at Hermione, who quickly put privacy charms around the room, just in case. The six of them sat together before Harry started, "Last year, I had private lessons with Dumbledore. I had no clue what they would entail, and I was surprised to find out that we were going into people's memories. All these memories were about Tom Marvolo Riddle, or, as he's now known, Voldemort. There was a connection between everything he was showing me, but I didn't know what. After one final memory he revealed that he believe Voldemort, the reason he lived that night when the killing curse rebounded on him, was because he split his soul."

"A horcrux," Sirius said with a horrified look on his face. "I caught my brother reading about them once. A horcrux is the darkest of all magic, even more so then the killing curse."

Harry nodded and said, "The night Dumbledore died, he and I took a trip to a cave, a cave where he believed a horcrux was. He was injured and weakened from drinking a potion, but we got it, we thought we got Slytherin's locket, at any rate. Then we returned, Malfoy was supposed to kill Dumbledore but he got cold feet and Snape did it. Tonks and Remus can inform you of the rest of the battle. The basics are that Malfoy helped get Death Eathers into the school and Snape killed Dumbledore. The day of Dumbledore's funeral I knew I had to find the rest of the horcruxes, otherwise Voldemort would remain immortal. That's what we've been doing."

"Wait," Remus said. "I've heard of a horcrux too, but what do you mean Voldemort has more then one?"

"Isn't seven the most magically powerful number there is?" Hermione said dryly. "That's what they told us in Arithmancy."

"So, he made seven horcrux then?" Tonks asked.

"Six," Ron replied. "He still has the seventh piece inside of him."

"Dumbledore pointed out that, by the time he began collecting the items for his horcrux, Tom Riddle was obsessed with anything that was connecting to Hogwarts, or his magical past," Harry explained. "He killed a woman to get the Locket of Slytherin and the Chalice of Hufflepuff. We recently found out that the Flute of Ravenclaw is the last item we needed to discover."

"The last one?" Sirius asked with confusion. "I thought there were six."

"Oh yeah, sorry. Dumbledore found the Gaunt Family ring, ("The Gaunts were the descendants of Slytherin," Hermione added, when seeing their confused faces.), and destroyed that one. Another was Riddle's diary, which I destroyed in the Chamber of Secrets, and the last one is Voldemort's snake."

"So you were in that house, the Riddle house, looking for a horcrux?" Tonks asked.

They all nodded and Harry said, "I used magic to feel if it was there. It was at one time, but it was moved. This note is all that was there, it was inside a fake cup." Harry passed the note to the three adults to read. "This is the same thing that happened with the locket."

"You mean that locket you were wearing? This one?" Tonks asked as she pulled it out of her traveling cloak. "I never even thought."

"That's the locket that was in my house!" Sirius exclaimed. "We couldn't open it, remember?"

Harry nodded and said, "The note with the fake locket was from R.A.B, who was later killed by Voldemort for stealing it and hiding it."

"Regulus Arcturus Black," Sirius breathed out. "That little bugger wasn't as bad as I thought he was."

"Now we need to find out who K.J.P is," Hermione said. "If we find out who they were, then we have a better chance of finding the cup."

"Why do those initials look so familiar?" Remus said to himself. Tonks shrugged, not recognizing them off hand.

"They are familiar," Sirius agreed. "But I can't think of whom they belonged to."

"It's late," Tonks said suddenly. She turned to face Harry and said, "You'll end up in the hospital again if you don't get some sleep, and then were will this little hunt be going? We can talk about this more later."

Everyone stared at her and she said, "What? Someone has to be the sensible one!"

Reluctantly they all agreed to go to bed. Hermione showed them all where they'd be staying (Remus and Tonks got a room to share and Harry said Sirius could pull a cot into his room) they all quickly fell asleep. All except Harry, that is.

He sat up in his room, reading through his mother's diary. There was nothing important in the passages he was reading, but he enjoyed it none the less. He smirked at his mother's anger yet her obvious attraction to his father. She was in denial in her sixth year and wasn't aware of it at all. He went on reading as she told about how James's twin sister, Karmen Potter, had locked them in a closet together and—

Harry backtracked over what he had read. His mother had angrily written down his aunt's full name, and seeing it made his heart rate quicken. Karmen Juliet Potter…K.J.P.

"Sirius," he hissed to his snoring godfather. He was still in slight shock about his beloved godfather being alive, but he was going to make sure he spent time with him this time around. Not many people got second chances, especially not him, so he was grateful for this one lucky break in his life. "Sirius wake up."

"Whatsammater?" Sirius muttered as he looked at Harry.

"Karmen Juliet Potter. K.J.P," was all Harry got out before Sirius sat up quickly.

"Of course," he said. "How could I have been so stupid? Karmy's probably frowning down or up on me from wherever she is! She was killed by Death Eaters."

"Just like Regulus was," Harry said.

"Her vault," Sirius replied. "It was years ago, but I remember her putting a wrapped package into her vault. I don't suppose you have the key?"

"I have a bunch of keys," Harry said. "They were all in my mother's keepsakes box. There are several Gringotts ones.

Sirius looked through them until he came to one with a K imprinted on it, "This one."

"Let's go now," Harry said.

"What?"

"Come on! We're just going into Gringotts, getting something out of my aunt's vault, and then coming back, it's not going to be a dangerous task like the Riddle house," Harry pointed out.

Sirius stared at Harry for a moment before saying, "Fine, get dressed and we'll stop over there. But make sure you don't wake Tonks or Hermione, they'll kill me for letting you out of the house when you're technically still a little injured."

Harry grinned, he was beyond glad that Sirius was back, he really was. Even though it was still hard to believe…

* * *

Hermione was the first one up in the morning, like usual. She stretched her sore muscles and walked out into the living room. Already dressed and ready for the day she started brewing some coffee and sat down at the table. She was about to start reading the book that she had brought out with her when she looked over and saw, sitting on her counter, the Chalice of Hufflepuff.

Everyone else came running into the kitchen at her surprised scream. Both Harry and Sirius laughed while Tonks, Remus and Ron looked startled.

"Where did that come from?" Ron asked with wide eyes.

"K.J.P gave it to us," Harry said while holding up a Gringotts key. "Sirius and I just went to pick it up last night. The goblin's on night shift thought we were insane for being there so late I think."

"Karmen!" Remus said. "James's twin sister! Of course! She had it all along?"

"It says in the note that his secret isn't as secret as he thought it was," Harry said. "Or something like that. Now we have two of these and there's one left to find."

"You don't know how to destroy them?" Tonks asked.

They all shook their heads no. The three adults exchanged looks before Remus said, "Well, we know what we're going to help figure out now."

The three young adults all had looks of relief on their faces. They were all glad that they had help now.

Hermione looked at the scars around Harry's wrists, from where the wires had held him, and realized that she was probably the most thankful for the extra help now. They were in beyond their heads, and even the normally stubborn Hermione Jane Granger could see that now.

* * *

**_  
Author's Note_**

So now we know that Vera (my OC and Lily's older sister) died protecting Lily, and Karmen found the cup of Hufflepuff. But then there's the fact that Harry pointed out Karmen and Regulus seemed to be working together. I'll give you a huge hint where I'm going with this: how it that they, along with Lily Potter, knew about the horcrux when they're supposedly one of Voldemort's most guarded secrets? (along with being Half-Blood?). I told you my OCs would come into play later, because I had to have the people who were involved with this dead, so it couldn't have been anyone we had already met in the books. And Vera does come into play more later on.

And I know how they got the cup wasn't that exciting, actually I didn't find it worth my time writing. They went into Gringotts, talked to goblins, went on a cart ride, opened vault, got cup, and left. I thought I gave Harry enough trouble trying to find it.

A big thanks goes out to: Harry Potter Girll, Len87, pupadawg66, Demonically Angelic Neko88, applesollie, adj7, supercushion and SiriusLeeBlack for reviewing!

Some points:  
-Yes that was twisted, I watch too many horror movies (haha I love em!)  
-Ron won't be getting the short end of the stick for much longer! I have something important planned for him!  
-Sirius coming back is unreal but oh well!  
-Even though Fawkes was immortal we won't be seeing him anymore, one life for another you know.

And thank you for pointing out typos and errors I made. I am fixing the documents slowly and will probably just replace all the chapters after I'm done with the edited ones.

Remember any suggestions, comments or anything else just send em in! I'd really appreciate it!

_**Krystal Lily Potter **_


	17. Through it All

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Seventeen:_** Through it All  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

* * *

Harry found his life had gotten much easier once he had allowed Remus, Tonks, and Sirius ("I can't believe he's really here," Harry thought every time he saw his godfather.) in on their adventure. Not only was research going along much easier since there were six people searching on how to destroy a horcrux, but now they had people to actually train them.

Sirius proved to be a valuable resource of knowledge for dark curses and their counter curses. Being a Black had some benefits, like being exposed to the dark arts at a young age. Either the individual became engulfed in them, or they learned enough about them to be masters at fighting the dark arts. Luckily Sirius had been the latter, rather then the former.

Remus gave them the basics of what was happening in the Order, complete and utter chaos. After Dumbledore died no one seemed to be able to tell up from down anymore. The three young adults had been worried about that at first, but Remus didn't seem worried at all.

"The time of the Order of the Phoenix has come and gone," he stated one day. "A new Order is rising, one that, at the current time, calls itself Dumbledore's Army."

Harry was shocked to hear that many of the Hogwarts students were pulling the group together once again, and most of the teachers knew about it. It had taken Harry a while of thought but eventually he agreed to send them a letter with a list of spells to practice, and a recommendation on who should be the temporary leader. He had thought it over and came to the same conclusion they had. Ron and Hermione had shown a little concern at his choice, but neither one of them said anything when he sent the letter off with Hedwig, saying that Neville Longbottom should be the temporary leader.

Tonks began an extremely brutal training regime with them. Every morning they were up at five in the morning to exercise (she had seen Harry running one night and thought that everyone should do that, it was good for a person to be fit), and then she set them to work with dueling. Although not naturally graceful, Tonks proved to be a quick and fine fighter. Most of the time her hexes and curses were right on, so learning to create the perfect shields, dodging and fighting back was something that was vital when going up against her.

Sirius had taken the liberty of giving the three of them the finer points of legitimacy and occlumency, something he had learned at a young age. He managed to teach Ron how to build a wall, something that he didn't know how to do before hand. Harry and Hermione proved to be adapt to keeping their minds closed ("Well they're naturally stubborn, you see, so it makes sense that nothing can get in their heads," Ron had joked.), and even Sirius now found it impossible to invade their minds. Not that he'd ever do it without a really good reason, or letting them know that he was going to do it first.

Out of the three adults Remus was probably the best teacher. He decided to start going through non verbal magic in more detail with them, and now even Ron was getting good at it.

"It's much easier when you don't have Snape breathing down your neck," Harry said one day.

"Amen to that," Ron agreed.

Hermione was a different story all together. Ever since Halloween, when Harry's accident occurred, she seemed to become more introverted. She spent most of her free time researching, trying to either find a way to destroy the horcruxes without losing a hand (they all still remembered Dumbledore's shriveled hand), or trying to locate where Ravenclaw's flute could be. Whenever anyone questioned her about it, she would just snap that someone had to do it. That was true enough, but Harry knew that wasn't the real reason behind her sudden self-isolation. She refused to meet his eyes, and most of the time preferred not to look at him at all.

November came and went, and December was passing by quickly enough. Tonks came and went from work as she needed to, but the other two adults had no jobs, so the cottage was always busy.

"This is much better than Grimmauld place. A little cold, but I can live with that over Kreacher," Sirius said one day as they sat on the back porch, facing the always moving ocean.

"Yeah, thanks for giving him to me," Harry said with a sigh.

"Oh yeah, I forgot he came with the house. What did you do with him?" his godfather asked.

"Made him work at Hogwarts," Harry replied.

"He even sent him a Christmas present," Ron replied with a grin. Even the recently always serious Hermione had to giggle at that.

"Really?" Sirius said with surprise.

"Yeah, I'll admit, the look on Harry's face when he opened that bag of maggots was pretty funny," Ron said as Sirius and Remus both burst into laughter. Hermione looked up with a wide grin on her face, but when she met Harry's eyes she looked down at her book quickly

Harry gave her a concerned look before turning his attention to his other friend, glared at him and said, "Hey Ron?"

"What?"

"Romilda Vane."

Ron's face went pale and he never mentioned a word about the Christmas present ever again, muttering something about love potions and poison.

"So tell me Harry," Sirius asked him. "Any girls I should know about?"

"No," he replied.

"Really? What happened with you and that Chang girl?"

"Nothing," he said with a shrug.

"He went out with my sister last year," Ron said.

"Ginny? Wow, Potter men sure like their red heads," Sirius said with a laugh.

"I'm not seeing her anymore," Harry pointed out.

"But you will after this is over, right?" Ron asked him curiously.

Hermione made a funny sound, causing all three males to look at her as she snapped her book closed, got up and stormed into the house.

"What's her problem?" Ron said after a moment.

"More like what did you do? I haven't seen her that angry since you were constantly stuck to 'Lav-Lav', Won-Won" Harry said with a laugh.

"Shut it," Ron replied, his ears turning pink. "I'll go talk to her."

He felt and Sirius turned to Harry with an odd expression before asking, "Lav-Lav and Won-Won?"

* * *

"Hey Remus, did you see where Hermione went?" Ron asked as he walked into the kitchen. The cottage was a decent sized one, but by no means huge. Still, Hermione knew this place better than the rest of them and knew how to hide when she wanted to.

"She walked down that hallway, what did you do? She seemed pretty angry," Remus asked him as he cooked lunch. He, Harry and Sirius took turns cooking, since the other half of the household was more likely to burn the cottage down before making an edible meal.

"Why does everyone assume I did something wrong?" Ron asked with a sigh as he quickly walked down the hall Remus indicated. He walked past an open door, looking in just to be sure that she wasn't in there, but all he saw was Tonks sleeping, she had been feeling sick recently.

Continuing his search he ended up at the front door. He pushed it open and was struck with the chill of the December air again. Looking down at the still visible sand he followed her footprints until he found her sitting under a tree.

"Go away," she snapped at him.

"What did I do?" he demanded.

She looked up over her book and her features softened as she said, "Nothing Ron. I just—"

"What's with you lately? You're becoming all…first year Hermione-ish," Ron exclaimed. "You know, more interested in books than people? But at the same time you're acting like you were last year when you were angry at me."

A guilty look passed over her face and she said quietly, "I know. Ron you don't understand, I'm the reason Harry almost died. I don't care what anyone else says, we should have never let him be alone in that house! The guilt, it's just been eating me away."

"Why don't you talk to him about it then?"

"I can't," she said while turning back to her book. Ron saw the tears in her eyes that she was trying to hide, and suddenly it all became clear to him.

His mouth opened slightly and said, "Oh."

She looked back up to him, with her tear filled eyes, and saw a look of realization, mixed with a small tint of pain as he once again said, "Oh."

"Oh what?" she asked.

"You don't know yourself, do you?" he said after a moment. "You don't know what's wrong with you."

"I—well—no, I don't," she replied.

Ron leaned back against the tree, sitting beside her and staring out over the Atlantic Ocean before saying, "I'm half expecting myself to go off on a rant about how Harry gets everything, but I can't. I don't know, maybe I've grown up these past couple months, finally. I guess, being away from my family, I see that Harry really doesn't have everything, money can't replace people."

"I don't understand," Hermione said.

"That's a first. I guess, after what happened last year, I just expected it would never change, but now that it has…I'm actually not that upset," he said.

"What are you talking about?" she asked him with confusion.

"You got mad when I asked Harry if he was going to go out with Ginny again. It was the exact same reaction you had last year when I was with Lavender. You're in love with him, aren't you?" Ron said slowly and seriously.

She laughed slightly and said, "In love with Harry? No."

"You are," Ron insisted. "You're just in denial. I don't know why I'm not in denial or raging mad by now. But, I think it was because I saw this coming, over the past couple months I've seen that this was going to happen."

"I'm not in love with Harry, Ron."

"Yes you are," he replied. "You don't have to deny it for my sake."

She stared at him before looking back at her book, finally letting her tears fall, "I can't be. I was so angry over you not noticing me last year; I couldn't have just gone and fallen in love with someone else."

Ron took a deep breath, put his hand on her shoulder and said, "If I can see it, then there's no point denying it. That's the reason you're so upset about the whole Riddle house thing, because you think you let someone you really do love get hurt. That was last year Hermione and…it never went anywhere. Even I thought it would, but it didn't. You've just moved on, and I'm alright with that."

A small smile appeared on Hermione's face as she said, "You've grown up Ron."

"I guess it was about time," Ron said with a small grin.

"I can't tell him."

"Don't then, not yet at least. That doesn't mean you have to isolate yourself from him, Harry isn't as dense as he seems, he does realize that you try not to look at him."

"I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't."

They looked at each other and she hugged him tightly while giving him a peck on the cheek, "Thank you Ron. You're a good friend."

"No more isolation then?' he asked.

She nodded her head reluctantly as they stood up and started heading back.

"You should talk to him, no you don't have to tell him about that (she had given him a terribly nervous look), just about the whole guilt thing," Ron advised her.

Hermione hesitantly nodded before wandering off. When Ron had seen his two friends together later Harry was hugging a sobbing Hermione and saying, "It's not your fault. Don't you dare blame yourself." He knew that Hermione hadn't said anything about her feelings, but maybe it was best for now.

Ron Weasley was proud of himself more then anything, he had finally passed his jealous brat years. He was even able to ignore the bit of pain he felt at the realization that Hermione would never be with him. He could live with that though, as long as he was still both their friend.

* * *

Harry jumped about a foot in the air when he was awoken to a large, barking, black dog. He looked down at it with an annoyed look, seeing its tail wagging happily.

"Sirius," he muttered while looking at his watch. "It's five in the morning. I thought we got a day off from waking up early."

Sirius transformed and said, "Happy Christmas to you too Grinch. Get up."

Harry was startled, hadn't even thought about Christmas this year. Guilt passed over him when he realized he hadn't bought Ron or Hermione anything.

"I figured with all the training and research you've been doing lately," Sirius said. "That you didn't have any present so we're going to Diagon Alley."

"You're a life saver," Harry said as he stood up and stretched. It was only at that moment that he realized he could almost stare eye to eye with Sirius, who was still slightly taller than he was. Time had sure gone by quickly.

"Get dressed and we'll go. Remus is going to cover for us," Sirius said.

Harry nodded gratefully and quickly got dressed as Sirius went out into the kitchen. Luckily Hermione wasn't even up yet.

"Ready," Harry said as he ran into the room. He looked around, noticing the rather plain look the cottage had to it. "No wonder I didn't realize what time of year it was."

"I agree," Sirius said and quickly transfigured one of the little decorative trees into a large Christmas tree. "I don't know what to do about decorations though."

Harry grinned suddenly and said, "Watch this, I accidentally found out I could do this." He walked up to the tree and moved is and in a slashing motion, and a small, glowing string of magic remained behind. He continued to do that until the tree was covered in different colored strings of magic.

Sirius stared at it with an open mouth before saying, "Harry that's…that's incredible. I've never heard of someone being able to do that before."

Harry shrugged and said, "Neither did I. Now come on we need to go. Are the shops even open this early in the morning? Espeically on Christmas."

"Yes," Sirius said while rolling his eyes. "Early birds and people like you, you know. We have to stop by Gringotts anyway. The shops are all open for a few hours in the morning."

Harry nodded and they both left the cottage. Recently they had agreed that it was too risky to just leave the cottage as it was, so they placed several high security charms on it to protect them. Once they were outside the anti-apparation wards they both vanished.

* * *

As the two entered Gringotts a few of the goblins looked up curiously as they approached the desk. It happened to be the same one that they had met when coming to get the cup.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, what can I do for you today?" the goblin said in it's deep, scratchy voice.

"We wish to visit this vault," Sirius said as he pulled out a rather old looking key.

The goblin eyed it with surprise and said, "The Potter vault. I heard rumors that this key was lost years ago."

"I thought I had the Potter vault already," Harry said with confusion.

"No, you're parents made that for _you_," Sirius said, stressing the 'you'.

The goblin nodded before yelling, "Griphook! Take these two to the Potter vault. Keep that key with you, and take care of it."

Harry nodded to the goblin as he took the key and followed the same little goblin that had taken him and Hagrid down to his vault before first year. The trip was a much longer one, and Harry was alarmed when they actually went by the dragons, their bright yellow eyes following the cart.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"The Potter vault is a very old one, highly protected," the goblin explained.

"My family vault is down here too," Sirius explained. "So I guess you have two of them down here now."

"But you're alive," Harry said with confusion. "Doesn't that null your will?"

"Everything legally belongs to you Mr. Potter," Griphook explained. "We are trying to sort this out; it isn't common for someone who died to return."

Harry nodded, understanding that with Sirius it was an odd case because he had been classified as legally dead, yet here he was standing beside Harry.

Finally they reached an old vault. Harry gave Griphook the key and as the heavy door slowly opened his mouth fell open. He thought his vault had a lot of money in it, but it was nothing compared to this one. Not only were there mountains of galleons, sickles and knuts, but there were many other items in there.

"James explained to me once that there is always a separate vault made for the Potters when they go to school and they're not told about this one until they're of age. Once they graduate, unless otherwise stated, the money in the smaller vault returns here. Karmen and James shared one when they were growing up, but their parents allowed Karmen to keep it open, as she didn't want anything to do with this one for some reason. She was always against the rich, stuck up people though, so I guess it probably made her feel like a hypocrite," Sirius explained.

"Miss. Potter's vault has been emptied into here again," Griphook said suddenly. "Her last wishes were that, when the package was removed from her vault, it be closed down."

"It would have got lost in here," Harry said as he started moving around the money. He knelt down next to a box, carefully opening it and asking, "What are these?"

Sirius looked over Harry's shoulder and said, "Ritual daggers. They're very old. James wanted to take them out of here once, but Lily was pregnant at the time and forbade him from doing so, just in case you happened to get one when you were born. I think we should leave those here, they're from the darker years of the Potter family."

Harry moved past them and stopped, staring at the object before him, "What is this?"

Sirius laughed and said, "The chess set this girl bought your dad. He didn't want it so he put it in here. That thing was probably worth a thousand galleons."

Harry looked at the thing, it was the finest chess set he had ever seen. "Is that real gold and silver?"

"Yup," Sirius said with a laugh. "Lily thought the woman was mad for buying that, but that crazy old lady insisted he have it."

Harry grinned, picking it up and saying, "It's going to waste sitting in here, I'll never use it. So might as well give it to someone who will."

"I'm sure Ron will love it," Sirius said as they continued to explore.

After a few minutes of searching Harry said, "Look at these! I bet Remus could use them."

Sirius laughed loudly at the robes Harry was holding up. They were a fine pair, to be sure. Compared to the robes Remus usually wore, they appeared to be fit for a king.

"I'm going to give him these," Harry said after a moment. "I don't need all this stuff and there's no need to let it go to waste."

Sirius nodded before saying, "I think Tonks would like this."

Harry looked at the blanket in Sirius's arms, watching as it changed color before saying, "Yeah, I think so too. Sirius, did everyone else buy stuff?"

"Yup, even me! I knew you didn't though, you've been working the hardest out of all of us," Sirius explained as he tossed the blanket over his shoulder. "Blimey, there are more of these things in here."

Harry shrugged as he started walking away and said, "What's this?"

Looking over his shoulder, his godfather said, "That was your mother's necklace. Those are real diamonds in it. It was a family heirloom, but she didn't want to keep it in the house so she put it here."

Harry stared at it curiously, it was a small necklace with a phoenix in it. The eyes were diamond, as were parts of the wings. "This is for Hermione. I already know what I'm giving you! I had planned to give it to you a while ago but I'm glad I didn't. Remus helped me get it a few weeks back."

Sirius stared at him suspiciously before saying, "So, no need to hit the stores then?"

"As much as I know you love shopping, I see no reason to," Harry joked as he put some money into his bag.

"Your worse then your father," Sirius muttered as he followed Harry out of the vault, but ended up crashing into him. "What was that for?"

Harry didn't answer him. His eyes were glued at an envelope on the floor, "Griphook, was the money in my vault placed in here?"

"Yes," Griphook answered. "Along with the items that were just recently placed into yours."

"Harry?" Sirius asked slowly.

Harry took a few steps and reached down, picking up the envelope. "This is Dumbledore's writing. It's addressed to my aunt."

"Yes, we found it in the belongings that the late Albus Dumbledore insisted be given to you upon his death," Griphook explained.

Harry stared at it for a moment before opening it and reading it.

_Petunia Dursley, _

I am dreadfully sorry for the inconvenience that I portrayed at your house in the previous summer, and I know that you will be reluctant to allow Harry to return to your home in the upcoming summer. I explained the magic to you again and again, and it is soon coming to an end. I expect that next year will be a particularly hard year for Harry, so I ask you to treat him nicely this summer. I know this will pain you very much, so, because of that and because the blood protection will be dying on Harry's seventeenth birthday, I have decided to purchase a new house, and of course the money for new appliances that non-magical people need will be given to you as well. The only condition is to actually be nice to Harry for his time there this summer. The money is already in an account, and when Harry leaves, if my phoenix believes that you have completed the task I ask of you, then the numbers will be given to you to access this money. Perhaps tell him of Lily's keepsakes box, it is under her bed at Godric's Hallow. I intended to do it myself, but it might be best if you do it. Give him this key and say it is a spare; it will make him happy for the time being. It pains me that I must bribe a family to take good care of their nephew, but it must be done. I will be expecting a reply from you; the owl that brought this will wait for your answer.

_Sincerely,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

Harry felt sick went he read that letter, and with shaking hands he took out the reply. Apparently Petunia had just stuffed her answer back with the letter, not wanting it to be around the house for visitors to find.

_Dumbledore,_

_  
I will do as you ask. I expect the money and house to be waiting for us on July 31st._

_Petunia Dursley_

Harry cursed loudly and threw the letter to the ground, along with all the gifts in his arms. Sirius quickly scanned it, understand why he was so angry. He quickly collected the items and went back in the cart with an extremely bitter Harry Potter.

'Some Christmas this turned out to be,' Sirius thought. When they arrived home Harry just stormed to his bedroom without greeting anyone.

Sirius explained about the letters, and they all understood. Tonks said she would have been bitter if she found out the only reason that her aunt was nice to her (not that either of them ever were) was because a powerful wizard had bribed them.

Reluctantly Sirius passed out Harry's presents when the boy refused to leave his room. The only thing that he knew was that it was a miserable Christmas, thanks to the Dursleys.

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

Sorry about not going into detail with the opening of gifts and everything, but I did intend the chapter to end this way, kind of depressing instead of happy. Honestly I don't really feel up to writing Christmas scenes right now.

So to all those who said that the Dursleys were too nice, you were right. I decided early on to make him find the letter explaining why they were nice later on, to make him miserable. Also I'm in a bit of a hurry to end this chapter because I want to get on to the next one really bad. I enjoyed writing the whole scene with Ron and Hermione though.

Yeah, I'm not going to lie, I WAS actually going to make this R/Hr and make them have a relationship while all this was going on but I decided that I couldn't do it because I'm an H/Hr fan. I decided that there isn't going to be any like active romance though, if you know what I mean. Also I thought I should make Ron appear more mature, it seemed only fair. I didn't want this to be a fic where Ron was bashed or anything, no matter how much I dislike his character. Everyone grows up, especially in war.

Thank you to all who reviewed! I really do appreciate it. I know I always say that but it's true. I have no major things to point out but if you have any questions or suggestions don't hesitate to tell me!

_**Krystal Lily Potter **_


	18. A Fatal Mistake

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Eighteen:_** A Fatal Mistake  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

* * *

"Harry?" Hermione said hesitantly as she walked into the room. Her eyes looked from him to the pile of books on the floor in front of him. Ever since Christmas had passed by with less than normal enthusiasm, Harry had buried himself into books. He was constantly looking up stronger spells to use and liked to train as much as possible. Remus, Tonks and even Sirius were all reluctant to teach him as much as he'd like them to, so he had taken to hitting manikins that he had conjured. 

"What? I'm a little busy," he replied without looking up from his book.

An insulted look appeared on her face and she said, "I was going to ask you if you wanted to come for a walk. You've been in here for hours!"

"Sounds like some other bookworm I know, doesn't it?"

She folded her arms across her chest and said, "That's not fair, and you know it."

Harry finally looked up from his book and asked, "How is that not fair? You bury yourself into books to figure out how to get ahead, and so am I. Before you kept telling Ron and me to study more, to practice more and now that I am, you want me to stop?"

"You're over obsessing," Hermione snapped at him. "Everyone expects to see me with a book, but its common knowledge that you hate studying. So obviously something's out of place! Does this have to do with the letter Dumbledore sent your aunt?"

Harry turned his annoyed gaze from her to the wall behind her figure. His hands clenched the book tightly before he said, "The greatest wizard of our age bribed those barbarian muggles to be nice to me, just so I could have come peace. He knew this year was going to be rough, so he gave me the chance to relax. I did so now I might as well push myself to finish what he started."

"Harry," Hermione said, her features becoming softer. "You don't need to bury yourself in work."

"I have to Hermione. You heard the prophecy, I have to defeat him. If I don't learn how to now, I'm going to regret it later," he snapped. "Just leave me alone, ok?"

"Fine!" she screamed angrily. "You're insufferable, Harry James Potter!" She turned on her heel, slammed the door shut and stormed down the hall.

Tonks looked up at her with wide eyes. Remus and Sirius went back to Remus' house the night before for his transformation, claiming that it would be like old times. They had yet to return, so Tonks was stuck with the troubled trio.

"What did he do now?" the metamorphmagus asked as Hermione entered the room.

"I-want-to-murder-him," Hermione said through clenched teeth. "He thinks that he's in this all alone, again! Not even the letter should have made him start thinking that! I've tried to be understanding, but he's driving me crazy! Is this what you guys felt around me?"

Her last question had been aimed at Ron, who had just entered the kitchen. Looking similar to a deer caught in headlights he hesitantly said, "Well, when you started breaking out the OWLs studying timetables in fourth year, yeah I'll admit we were a little annoyed…or when you asked in your first letters if our homework was done…or just the colour-coded exam timetables…"

"I get the point," she said as she sunk down in her chair. "I was a terrible person to be around."

Ron raised an eyebrow and said, "I'm not going to lie, sometimes you were, but most of the time you weren't. Harry's just…gone off the deep end for reasons we'll never know."

"Maybe," Tonks said to them. "He's just realized that it's a new year, and maybe he's just realized that it's drawing closer to the final battle. We all know it's coming sooner rather than later. I stopped by one of the Order meeting McGonagall managed to scrounge up, thinks aren't looking too good at the moment."

"…That doesn't stop him from annoying me," Hermione muttered.

"You expect too much from people," Ron said to her.

"Excuse me?" she growled while straightening herself. "What does that mean?"

Tonks coughed and quickly left the room, knowing that an overly angry Hermione was not something she wanted to deal with now. Harry had started a fire and Ron had just accidentally fanned it.

"Well…you see…what I meant was…" Ron sighed deeply before starting again, "You're mad at Harry because you like him. You expect him to be Mr. Perfect, just like you thought I would be. You got so mad at the smallest things I did last year when you clearly fancied me, and now that he's caught your eye you're acting the same way towards him."

"Are you saying this is my fault?" she snapped.

"Well…"

"Forget it!" she said and stormed out of the room, fuming.

"Well," Tonks said as she entered the room again. "You and Potter are sure making good impressions today."

Ron sighed and got up, heading to Harry's room. Without knocking on the door he threw it open and said, "You're a prat, you know that?"

Harry looked up at Ron with a raised eye brow, before grabbing his jacket and throwing it on. He found it much more comfortable to wear muggle winter jackets compared to cloaks.

"What are you doing?" Ron asked him slowly, when he finally took in Harry's appearance.

"I'm just going out for a run. It's pretty cold out," Harry said flatly.

"What's with you lately?" the red head asked. "You've been all quiet and moody! It can't be because of the letter, and you know it as much as we do."

He didn't say anything, just shrugged Ron off as he walked out of the room. Ron glared at him and followed after while saying, "Really Potter, what's your bloody problem?"

Harry stopped walking, causing Ron to crash into him, but he didn't fall over. He quickly turned and glared at Ron while saying, "Just back off, alright? I have a lot of my mind right now."

Ron watched as Harry stormed outside, wishing desperately that he knew what was wrong with his friend.

* * *

Sirius and a very exhausted looking Remus returned a few hours later. They both sat at the table with Tonks, who only looked up for a second when they entered. 

"Harry's been in a sour mood all day. Hermione and Ron are both angry at him, and Hermione is angry with both boys now. Personally I agree with them being annoyed at Harry, he is being very snappish and it's not just over that damn letter," Tonks said after a moment. She looked up at them as she spoke, taking Remus' hand into her own.

"He hasn't been sleeping very well. I wake up every night I'm here because he's tossing and turning. He always wakes up quickly and doesn't really get back to sleep," Sirius explained. "I asked him what was wrong one time but he just said that it was nothing."

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" Remus asked him.

"He asked me not to; he said it was no big deal. Just dreams from the past."

"I doubt it," Tonks said. "But now that I think about it, he's always a lot friendlier when you're around Sirius. I think he doesn't want you to worry too much."

"Why?" asked Black, surprised.

"Sirius, when you…when we thought you had died, I had to hold Harry back from flinging himself into the veil to try and save you. He chased after Bellatrix, and he confessed later that he tried to use the Cruciatus curse on her, but it failed. It's just a theory, but I think that he's afraid if he tells you too much you'll try to stop him from doing what he has to do, and end up dying again," Remus explained. "He's learned that not all his dreams are true, but unfortunately that means he doesn't tell us what any of his dreams are about, so we have no heads up if something _is_ real."

Sirius looked down and said with a sigh, "He is willing to die for all his friends, and what he is too dense to see, is that we all feel the same, and we're willing to die for him. I should talk to him, I think it's beyond time to tell him that this isn't just Potter versus Voldemort now, it's a full scale war."

"I think that's the best idea you've had all day," Tonks said happily.

"How would you know? I've only been here for five minutes."

"But I'm sure it's still the best idea you've had all day," Tonks replied while smiling playfully at her cousin.

Sirius rolled his eyes at her, and punched a chuckling Remus lightly in the arm before going to track down his moody godson.

* * *

Harry sat on the large, slippery rocks against the coast line farther away from the Granger Cottage. His green eyes gazed out over the ocean, unfocused as he thought about his dreams over and over again. He wasn't sure what to do, they felt all too familiar. He wasn't sure if it was one of his rare, real premonitions, or of it were a vision implanted in his mind from Voldemort. 

Picking up a small pebble he tossed it into the ocean. He stared down at his feet but quickly looked up when he heard someone approaching him. Turning only slightly he identified a female figure walking towards him, and the bushy brown hair told him that it was Hermione.

Shame spread through him at the way he had been acting towards her and Ron. His dreams left him with very little sleep, and his failed attempt to find the magic to stop the second half of the dream from coming to pass made him search harder, becoming angry at the littlest thing that interrupted him.

Hermione carefully walked onto the rocks and sat down next to him, not saying anything as she stared out at the ocean beside him.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, but she heard him. Without looking at him she picked up a potato sized rock from beside his foot and threw it into the water. They both watched as it hit the surface with a greater splash then the one Harry had tossed in.

"I don't see why you try to push us away," she said after a moment. "We're your friends Harry and, we would do anything for you. I understand that you're on the front lines more than any of us in the war, but there isn't a war in history that one man has fought alone."

"I don't want to lose any of you," he replied. "Sirius, I still can't believe he's back, and…I don't want to lose him again. Remus and Tonks, they've been so helpful through everything and they mean a lot to me. Then there are you and Ron. I don't know what I would do without you two."

Tears welded up in her eyes as she glanced at him for only a second. She opened her mouth slightly, as if to speak, but stopped herself. She quickly lowered her eyes to look at the rocks again and said, "We're not going anywhere Harry. You should realize though, that we feel the same way about you. Where would we be without you? You might not know it, but you and Ron were my first real friends, and you know, if it weren't for you I wouldn't have any friends. Ron would have been too stubborn to try."

Harry looked up at her.

"I wouldn't change anything that happened, not one thing. Sure, there have been bad things, but maybe if they didn't happen then everything would have been worse. Maybe if Snape hadn't killed Dumbledore he would have continued to tell Order secrets to Voldemort, and things might have been worse. We'll never know, but Harry…things would be worse without you. Please, let Ron and I help you. If not for yourself, then let us help you for us," Hermione said while leaning backwards so that her back was resting against the rock behind her.

He smiled slightly and looked up at the sky before frowning again. After a moment he looked back at her and said, "I've been having dreams, and I've been trying to figure out if it's possible for what happened in my dream to really happen. And if it is, I want to know how to stop it. We're not ready for this."

"The final fight?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"I don't know, I actually don't think so," he said after thinking about it. "Riddle wasn't there. It was terrible though, there were so many people dying and…I saw…"

"Sirius?"

Harry shook his head no and said, "No, I saw you…being killed. They were taunting me, saying that I couldn't help save the ones that I care about."

Hermione took a deep breath and grasped onto his wrist with her hand. She traced the scars left by the wires before saying, "Nothing's going to happen to me, don't worry."

"I can't help it. If you or Ron die…"

"You'll fight," she interrupted him. "You'll fight and you'll win, for us."

Harry didn't say anything else; he just turned his gaze up to the sky and stared at it. Hermione let go of his wrist, but she didn't leave. Instead, she decided to play the role of the supportive friend, even though her stomach was crawling with nervousness.

Behind them, a large, shaggy black dog sat down, it's tail wagging at the sight of Harry opening up to his friends.

* * *

"_Harry?" he asked, staring at the other teenager with surprised eyes. _

_Harry tried motioning again and again, seemingly unable to speak. He would fade out and reappear again and again, trying to get a message to him._

"_What? What's wrong?" he asked._

_A hopeless look appeared across Harry's face before he mouthed something to him before fading out of sight._

Neville Longbottom woke up, quickly sitting up. He looked around the room, half expecting to see Harry Potter sitting on his old bed, ready to tell him some important secret. But it was hauntingly empty, just as Ron's was.

He didn't understand his dream, he knew Harry was trying to tell him something, but it was difficult to tell.

When Hedwig had flown into the Great Hall one morning, everyone had been shocked. She was a noticeable owl, and it was easy to tell who she belonged to. It had come as an even bigger shock when she landed gracefully in front of him, proudly holding out her leg. He had taken the letter and before he could utter a syllable she had taken to the skies and wasn't seen since.

The letter had been addressed to the entire DA. They had read it during their meeting that night, and Neville didn't know what to say, he didn't expect Harry to suggest him as leader. The spell list had been incredibly helpful though.

Part of Neville Longbottom finally felt what it was like being Harry James Potter. It was difficult to get everyone in the DA to follow his instructions, and with his odd dreams he knew he had a glimpse into the life of the Boy-Who-Lived. He often wondered why Harry had chosen him, just like he wondered why Harry didn't seem surprised when he had met his parents in St. Mungo's.

He looked at the clock and saw that it read seven a.m. The teachers had reluctantly agreed to allow there to be a Hogsmead trip, with triple the security, just to let the students out of the school for once. Deciding to get up and start his day, Neville agreed to himself not to dwell on the dream for now, but to just enjoy the day and whatever came with it. He smiled at the thought that, later that day, he was going to spend time with one of his new closest friends, Ginny Weasley.

* * *

Far away, Harry Potter himself woke from his sleep with a frustrated look on his face. He had tried again and again to project his visions into Neville's mind, even trying to tell him what was going to happen. It seemed useless though, as Neville never heard him. 

He got up, quietly walking past a snoring Sirius, and out to the living room. No one else was up yet, something he was glad for at the moment.

Harry sat on the couch and stared at the circular coffee table in front of him. Closing his eyes he tried to concentrate, but it was no use, Neville was awake now and he had no way to connect to him. He understood that he wouldn't be able to get his complete dream as clearly as Voldemort had made his visions of the Department of Mysteries, because the two shared no bond, but he didn't expect everything to turn out this bad.

Then again, he was practicing Occlumency much harder then he was Legitimacy. It just seemed more important to protect his mind then practicing breaking into other minds (as helpful as that would really be), and mind magic was more difficult than it appeared.

"Are you alright Harry?" a tired Remus asked as he dragged himself out of his room. He threw himself ungracefully onto a chair and slumped down.

"Just thinking," the young man replied while looking at Remus' exhausted appearance. "Tired Moony?"

"The Order meeting went on forever," he replied with a sigh. "There are going to be members all over Hogsmead today. McGonagall was disappointed that Tonks and I didn't volunteer. We told her that we were busy working on other things relevant to the Order."

"She doesn't know about Sirius, does she?"

"The most up-to-date news that the wizarding world has is that Sirius Black was innocent of all the crimes he supposedly committed, and that he died while trying to save his godson."

"How did you keep something like this covered up?" Harry asked with surprise.

"Ever since you're little trip there, the Department of Mysteries has become even more mysterious to outsiders," Sirius said as he joined them.

Soon everyone was awake and enjoying the breakfast that Sirius had made. There was idle chatter around the table, and no one noticed when Harry's eyes went wide, his fork dropped and his skin went paler than normal. They all continued with the conversation, all except one.

"Harry? Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione asked as she fearfully gripped onto his arm.

"It's starting," he said in a panicked voice.

"What's starting?" Ron asked him through a mouthful of sausage.

"My dream," Harry said as he stood up, knocking his chair over. "We have to get to Hogsmead, they're all in danger."

Everyone stared at him for a split second before jumping to their feet. They all quickly moved towards the door, Harry shooting a nervous look in Sirius's direction before turning and facing Hermione, who was right behind him.

She looked at him with confusion until he said, "Promise me, that you'll stay close to me. I don't want to lose you, alright?"

Her cheeks blushed lightly at his words, but disappointment appeared in her eyes as she knew he only meant that in a friendly way. She nodded and they both hurried on their way outside the wards, apparating to Hogsmead.

* * *

Screams echoed through the grounds, and Harry had a quick flashback of the chaos during the Quidditch cup, but this was different, this was much worse. There were students from third to seventh year there, some of them trying to defend themselves, some trying to run, and others injured or dead. 

The second they appeared, Remus, Tonks and Sirius joined the Order members, the Aurors, and the professors in fighting. There were some people from the town joining in the battle, but most tried to run without success.

Harry gripped Hermione's arm tightly, and nodded at Ron. Ron nodded back and the three of them quickly launched into the battle with everyone else.

"_Imperio_," a voice croaked to their left, and Harry felt a lightheaded feeling come over him.

_Kill the girl_, the same voice croaked in his head.

_I don't think so_, Harry thought back before turning around and throwing a stunning spell at him. The Death Eater was shocked to see who it was he had tried to control; they hadn't expected Harry Potter to show up.

Hermione yelled out a spell Harry had never heard in his life and two men that were a yard away from them fainted to the ground, but not with as much violence as was usually involved with the stunning spell.

_Levicorpus_, Harry thought, and without waving his wand the woman in front of him flew into the air. She shrieked and her wand fell to the ground, along with her mask. Harry wasn't that surprised to see Narcissa Malfoy and didn't give her so much as a second glance as Hermione knocked her out while she was still in the air.

Ron flew out of the crowds of people, throwing various hexes at the people he was fighting. Harry and Hermione continued to stay side by side as they fought their way through the casualties, neither one doing anything that would kill anyone.

"_Incendio_!" Harry yelled loudly, throwing flames in the direction of a witch with dark hair as she stumbled backwards, away from the flames that separated her from her original victim. Harry's blood started to boil at the sight of Bellatrix Lestange, who looked over in his direction with surprise.

"Harry!" Neville Longbottom called out with surprise.

"I'm sorry Neville!" he yelled back. "I tried to warn you."

Neville nodded and ducked as a curse flew over his head. He quickly moved to Harry's other side, shooting Hermione a quick smile before fighting again.

There was an explosion from right behind them, and all three stumbled to the ground, but were luckier than those who had been directly in front of the building.

Harry groaned as he pushed himself off the ground with both his hands and—

His mind froze, reeling in terror when he realized, that in those few seconds, Hermione had been separated from him. He looked around quickly and saw her a few feet away from him, battling a Death Eater who remained hidden behind his mask.

He moved over to when a scream from the opposite direction distracted him. He spun around quickly and saw a red haired girl fall to the ground, holding her stomach in pain.

"Ginny!" he yelled, causing her to look over at him. Hope appeared in her eyes, something that her attacker noticed as well. Bellatrix quickly grabbed the young witch by her hair, dragging her to her feet as Ginny let out a scream of pain. Lestange held the witch with her wand pointing at her head.

"Failed again Potter, you failed again to save someone you cared about," she yelled at him. "You failed to save the girl you care the most about!"

Harry heard a second scream, and looked over his shoulder to see the Death Eater Hermione was fighting hit her with a spell. Slashes appeared on her legs as she fell onto her back, trying to push herself up. He looked back to Ginny, seeing the helpless look on her face. Bellatrix caught onto his divided attention and decided to use it against him. "Can't figure out which whore to save Potter? All your decisions turn out bad for someone anyway; look at what happened to my dear cousin."

_Avada_, he heard a whisper from behind him start. His whole world seemed to go into slow motion when he heard that. With a panicked look he ran faster then he had ever managed to do before, grabbing Hermione and stumbling backwards as the killing curse slammed into the ground where she had been moments before.

Bellatrix was startled by his sudden speed, and Ginny used this to her advantage. She stomped on the woman's foot roughly, smirking as the evil witch yelled in pain. Her smirk vanished when she was thrown backwards and slid across the ground.

Bellatrix was glaring at Ginny heatedly before yelling, "You've made your choice Potter!"

Harry didn't hear her say the words, but he knew what was coming. He couldn't even yell when he saw the infamous green curse slam into Ginny Weasley. She slumped back to the ground, her lifeless eyes staring up at the sky.

Beside him, Hermione was the first to let out a cry of terror as she grabbed a hold of him. Bellatrix looked over at them and started making her way towards them while saying, "You're turn mudblood. See what happens when you care about people, Potter?"

"Yeah, you have a lot of people watching your back!"

Bellatrix shot around and screamed, "No! I killed you! I threw you through the veil."

Sirius glared at her and said, "And it's pay back time." He threw a curse as his stunned cousin, throwing her backwards. "That one was for Ginny." He threw another at her. "For the Longbottoms." And another. She screamed, unable to keep up with him. "For anyone else you tortured or murdered!" And finally he threw her backwards with a strong stunning spell, causing her to slump to the ground. "And that was for me, you disgusting bitch!"

To Harry that seemed like a victory all in its own: the fall of Bellatrix Lestange. But the actual battle continued to rage on.

Hermione sobbed as he pulled her up, shielding her from a curse flying in their direction. Harry grimaced in pain, closing his eyes tightly.

A suddenly, loud crack stopped the entire battle. Everyone, light and dark, froze in their tracks at the unknown snapping sound that filled the air.

"I didn't tell you this part," Harry whispered. "I didn't tell you what else would happened after…after I thought you had been killed. I tried to find magic to stop it, but I couldn't…"

Hermione shook her head, but quickly looked up at the sky as glowing cracks began to appear in the sky.

"And down they come," Harry whispered as there was a shattering sound echoed around. People screamed from shock, the Death Eaters all vanished as the pieces of magic fell around them, vanishing as it hit the ground.

"What's happening?" Ron yelled at him, his blue eyes widening with terror.

"The beginning of the end of secrecy," Harry said back, but only so those standing near him could hear. "The magic that broke, that was the wards hiding Hogsmead from the muggles."

A few people gasped as they watched the magic visibly continue to shatter and vanish, even more gaping with shock when it passed over Hogwarts.

"They can see us now," Hermione whispered. "They can find us."

"It's only a matter of time now," Harry whispered. "Until all the other wards fall."

"What's everyone looking at?" Ron asked as he shoved his way over. He was looking past his friends, towards a growing group of sobbing teenagers. "Did someone...die?

"Ron," Hermione said with a small sob. Harry hugged her tightly, staring at the ground with sad eyes. A fearful look passed over Ron's face when he heard a familiar yell of terror. Looking over quickly he saw his father (who had been fighting) pushing past the gathering students. When they separated for the sobbing man to kneel down next to the figure on the ground Ron went pale and muttered, "No…Ginny…"

Harry didn't know what to say, his mind was spinning with everything that had happened. He had been there for less then a half an hour, seeing his ex-girlfriend die, his best friend almost killed, the woman he hated the most taken down, and the one thing he never thought he would see.

High above, Muggles flying in an airplane screamed in shock as the village and large castle below just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. There was smoke coming from the ruins of several buildings, and many people outside. The muggles filmed it and later on took it to the media. No one could believe what they were seeing, an entire village, along with a castle, had appeared out of no where on video!

In London the Prime Minister sad down at his desk with a heavy sigh when he saw that footage. The separation between the muggle and magical worlds was visibly beginning to disappear, and he wasn't sure that anyone was ready for it yet.

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

I know, terrible place to stop it. And it's very choppy and not that good of a chapter in my opinion, but I had planned it out like that. As for the death of Ginny Weasley, that wasn't because I don't like her, and it wasn't thought up at the last minute. That scene was actually planned out since the beginning of this story. Don't worry I'm not just going to forget about her, there's more stuff in the next chapter. There was just a lot I had to fit into the tiny fight scene, because I wasn't focusing on the fight really. I wanted to get in the death of Ginny Weasley, and finally the wards that have been hiding magic from muggles are actually falling now. There's more on both of this later! As in next chapter later…

Also regarding the whole very minor **H/Hr** thing, I don't think it's fair for people to ask me to change it. I prefer H/Hr over R/Hr (well I don't like Ron much anyways…) and that's what I'm going to keep it as. It's like people asking JKR to make the couples in a book go a certain way when she already has it planned out. The extent of romance is going to be like it was in this chapter though. Do I think H/Hr will happen in the books? Honestly no, but this is fanfiction and really, it doesn't have to be realistic. I know a bunch of other things in here aren't going to be.

As for the person who asked why don't I put this under Harry/all instead of Harry/Hermione, because those categories, I believe, were made for the main characters of the story, not necessarily for certain ships. Harry and Hermione are the characters I focus more on (as you've probably noticed by now), so I'm not changing it.

I know that there are many things that people can criticize me on, plot wise, but for now just nod your heads and go along with me. Everything will clear up more later on! Promise!

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	19. Guilt

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Nineteen:_** Guilt  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

* * *

"A world inside a world…" 

"What else is being hidden?"

"This was the best guarded secret in Britain…"

"Is it possible to hide an entire village from the rest of the world? Hello, I'm Samantha Janie, and today's top story is the video that has swept the nation. In this video, which was originally supposed to be for a documentary, an entire village, as well as a large castle, appear out of thin air. Experts have studied the video, ruling out any chance of it being a hoax. Today the Prime Minister himself is traveling to that town for reasons not yet stated. This provides speculation that it was a government experiment that went wrong with an explosion. If it's not then the only other option is…well pure magic…"

Hermione flicked the television off. It seemed as if ever channel had the news on, and every channel was talking about Hogsmead and Hogwarts. She had briefly watched a news story that showed the Pope delivering a prayer for those who believed in the magical theory, and a sinking feeling had filled her. She knew that it was only a matter of time before the entire magical world was in plain sight of everyone, and she knew that new, different barriers would be created between people. The religious people would come to hate witches and wizards, insisting that they were demons sent by the devil (or something similar), and some people would try to take advantage of those with magic. Those were only a few of the problems she could think of if the magic world reappeared as fast as they thought it was going to.

The worst part was, no one knew how to stop it. The Ministry had released an unnerving statement saying that there had been no prior warnings to the wards falling down. It had been a reluctant message, but the wizarding world was starting to panic when the word had spread like wildfire that the wards had fallen. No one knew why magic that had stood for a thousand years would suddenly fall; all anyone knew was that it did.

Hermione got up off the couch, wincing as she walked. Despite the potions and spells used on her, there were still many scars on her legs from the spell that the Death Eater had hit her with. She tired to ignore the pain as she carefully walked through the quiet cottage.

Compared to before, when the beach side escape was busy with all it's occupants training, coming and going, and just plain insanity, it was oddly creepy.

Ron had gone home for a little while. The red head had insisted (through puffy red eyes of hidden tears) that he would be back, and not to get too far ahead of him. The Order seemed to be pulling together again, as Remus and Tonks were usually busy with that now. Sirius was an interesting story in himself. The second people realized that he was actually alive, some had cowered in fear, and others had welcomed him back with large hugs. Apparently even McGonagall had shed tears at the sight of him. He had much to sort out, and was busy with those affairs. That left Harry and Hermione alone.

She slowly opened the door to his room, only to find him lying on his bed. He didn't glance at her as she walked in, and he didn't give her any sign that he knew she had sat down beside him. He had been this way since the death of Ginny Weasley.

Hermione lay down beside him, but turned to face away. Tears appeared in her eyes every time she thought of Ginny. As far as she was concerned, it was her fault Ginny was dead. Harry had made a choice, Harry had chosen to save Hermione instead of saving her, and she almost wished that he hadn't. She was glad to be alive, but the guilt was eating her away.

A tiny sob escaped her lips, and it was that sound alone that broke Harry from his thoughts. He glanced at her, sat up and said, "Hermione? What's wrong…aside from the obvious?"

"First I nearly get you killed and now Ginny's dead because of me," she said with a sob, still not looking at him. "Maybe I shouldn't have come with you. I'm nothing but a death omen."

"Don't say that."

"I am Harry, admit it, if I wouldn't have been there you would have saved her! If I hadn't come then you wouldn't have been captured in the Riddle house because you wouldn't have been alone!"

Surprised by the strength behind her voice he looked away before saying, "Come on."

"What?"

"Put on your jacket and your sneakers."

She didn't understand what was happening, but like a doll she allowed him to put her sneakers and jacket on her before leading her outside.

Harry pretty much dragged her down to the icy water of the ocean before turning to her and saying, "Sit down. Fresh air helps me think, so I thought it might help you."

Hermione sat down and he sat facing her. With the ocean to her left and the cottage to her right she took a deep breath before saying, "It was my fault Harry. You loved Ginny so much and now…because of me. You'll never be able to be with her again…"

"I'm not going to lie and say that I never felt anything for her," Harry stared after thinking for a few minutes. "I'm not going to lie like I didn't enjoy my time with her. But I didn't love her, I realize that now. She made me feel like a normal teenager at the time, it was…it was great. But I'm not a normal teenager, and I'm not sure who she saw when she looked at me, Harry Potter or the Boy-Who-Lived. I don't think I ever would have gotten back together with her, but I didn't want her to die. Far from it. I was hoping she would remain my friend, that she would grow old and have a large family like her mother. She didn't deserve to die."

He took a deep breath and looked at the sky, blinking back any tears that would have been in his eyes. He looked at Hermione when he was sure he wouldn't break down and said, "I'll keep fighting for her. I will, just like you said I'd keep fighting for you and Ron. But know this Hermione, it wasn't your fault. It was never you. It was my fault. I kept you so close to me, and when we were separated things got so confusing."

"I didn't even know that you weren't there," Hermione said. "I didn't even realize that the person behind me was an enemy until I heard their voice."

"Exactly, so if I hadn't gotten my dream wrong, or if I hadn't been so obsessed with them, she would…it was my fault," he said quickly.

"No Harry, I hate when you blame yourself for things you couldn't control," she said to him, her stare a sad one.

"That's how I feel when you say this is your fault."

They stared at each other before Harry said, "I wish I…you have no idea how much I wish Ginny was still here, how bad I feel about this. But you know…I'm glad it didn't turn out like I thought it would. I would have completely lost it if you…or Ron, had been murdered."

"What did you see in your dreams?" Hermione whispered after a moment.

"I didn't actually see the captured one's face, so I didn't know it wasn't you. I just assumed it was. The words she said to me were the exact same as in the dream though. It all happened exactly like I saw it."

"Seeing the future is dangerous, and trying to change it is even more so."

Harry smiled sadly and asked, "Are you sure you're going to be alright Hermione? We already lost one friend, one that I know is definitely not coming back, I don't want to lose another one because of guilt."

Tears welded up in Hermione's eyes and she said, "I'll be fine. I'll be better once this is all over, but for now I can survive."

Harry stood up, quickly helping her to her feet and said, "See, fresh air helps you think. What I wouldn't give to go flying over the ocean…"

She shook her head and said, "I'm sure Ginny would have found that exciting."

"She would."

They slowly started walking back to the steps leading up to the cottage's deck when Hermione said, "Do you believe in fate Harry?"

"No," he answered. "Fate is when all of our decisions were pre-planned, and no matter what it seems like, there was only one possible option that we could make. I do, however, believe in destiny. We're destined to end up in a certain place, but how we get there is up to us. Why?"

"I just wondered if everything was fated to happen the way it did," she said hesitantly.

"I don't think so. It was our decisions, good and bad, that led us to where we are, and nothing more. Don't blame yourself for Ginny though, it wasn't your fault. I'm more at blame then you are, no matter what you try to say. I thought it was you…when I heard Bellatrix say that I couldn't save the person I cared most about…I thought it was supposed to be you. Besides, I know Ginny wouldn't have wanted to die at all, but if she had to, she would have wanted to go while fighting."

Later they both fell into restless, haunted sleeps, and it was only then that Hermione realized what he had said. He cared about her more then he did any one else. For the first time since the attack on Hogsmead, a real smile found a way to Hermione's face as she fell asleep much easier. She knew now was not the time, and there might not be a time for her and Harry for years to come, but, for now, she knew that he cared about her, and that was good enough in itself.

* * *

Molly Weasley had sobbed when they lowered her daughter's casket into the ground. All her sons had grim looks on their faces, even Percy had turned up for the funeral…a heartfelt apology coming along with him. Not even Fred and George had given him a hard time. 

Her blue eyes gazed at each of her sons in turn, before landing on her youngest…her Ron. He had a straight face; he had shed all the tears he held within him. The same grim look that was on his brothers' faces was on his as well, but there was something else she saw underneath it.

Determination.

For a moment she felt afraid and had the urge to Ron to her youngest son (_'And youngest child now,'_ her mind mournfully reminded her.) and keep him within her strong embrace. Neither Harry, nor Hermione had made an appearance for the funeral, but Ron didn't appear insulted by that one bit. While the other boys had appeared angered over this, Ron didn't seem bothered by it, and that bothered Molly to no end.

As the final proceedings finished family and friends began to approach the Weasleys, giving them comforting words of sorrow. The tears couldn't stop falling from Molly's eyes, her baby was gone.

Ron brushed by her, and she watched as he approached Remus Lupin, who looked at him sadly while offering words of comfort. One of Tonks' hands held Remus', the other patted Ron's arm. Mrs. Weasley's gaze then turned to the tall man standing on the other side of Remus: Sirius Black.

She had been as stunned as anyone else to see him alive, and part of her was bitter for it. Was that the reason her daughter was dead? Sirius had returned to the world, so there were one too many souls living? Did the fates take Ginny's life to make room for his?

"…I'm going to say goodbye to everyone this time, and then I'll be back later," Ron said to the three adults, making Molly's blood run cold. Her face went pale before burning bright red. Arthur put a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off and marched over to Ron.

"You will do no such thing Ronald Bilius Weasley! Your sister just d-died! You are not running off to get yourself killed, especially not with _them_ in charge of you," she gave Remus, Tonks and Sirius a look of dislike. "They are not fit to handle children! You are coming home with your father and I!"

"You're not making Bill or Charlie come home," Ron angrily pointed out. "What about Percy, huh? Or Fred and George? They're your sons too!"

"They are all grown up!"

"So am I!" Ron yelled. "Mum, I'm going to help Harry and Hermione! End of discussion!"

The Weasleys and anyone listening held their breath; almost no one had spoken to her like that in years.

"Where are they then, Ronald? Where are your two dear friends? They didn't even show up to pay their last respects to Ginny! And what is so important for you to leave school and disappear for months on end? I want you to stay home…away from them! It was their fault! One of the other students told me! That vile woman was taunting Harry with my baby's life, and instead he helps _Granger_ (she said Hermione's last name with great dislike)! What kind of person does that?"

Sirius's eyes narrowed at her, and he yelled, "They are not to blame! Harry made a choice! One of them was going to die! No matter how it turned out one of the girls were destined to die! I'm sorry it was Ginny, we all are! But you getting mad and blaming everyone else isn't going to help anything! She's gone Molly, and you know, I didn't even know her that well, but I know enough to say that she'd want Ron to go with Harry and Hermione. She'd want them to end all of this so that no one else dies!"

"What would _you_ know about losing a child?!" Molly shrieked, close to hysterics.

"I had a six month old daughter who was killed by my own cousin, that's how I know. I mourned, god did I ever mourn…my little girl was gone, and her mother lost all sanity after that and vanished, but you know what, I kept fighting because I knew it was the right thing, so that we could stop this maniac from destroying everyone's lives! What are you going to do Molly? Help, or let this ruin everything?"

Molly stared at him with wide eyes; she had never known that about Sirius. Apparently very few people did. The only one not surprised to hear the story was Remus, who gave his friend a sympathetic look. Sirius took a few deep breaths before backing away from her.

Ron looked at the ground. He wanted to stay with his mother and just mourn his sister's early death, but Sirius was right, Ginny would probably come back to haunt him if he didn't go back to help. He had never been more conflicted in his life.

"Go Ronald."

Everyone turned to face Fleur, who stared at him with a determined look. Her blue eyes met his as she said, "Go and fight, for your sister, Ronald. We all should. She was a good person, a fiery spirit, and even though we did not get along I admired her very much for that." Her French accent was strong, but she pronounced each word with graceful clarity. Everyone present stared at her, seeing a strong and fiery look that matched Ron's in her eyes. "I won't give up. I want to fight. Don't give me that look Bill…I was a tri-wizard champion, I will fight. We all will in whatever way we can."

Ron stared at her, nodded fiercely and said, "However we can. You're right Fleur. I'm sorry mother, but I'm not ready to give up yet. They're going to pay for what they did. Yes, we have Bellatrix, Malfoy, and I even heard rumors of Greyback being locked up, but that's not good enough. All of them are going down, so that no one else dies. For Ginny."

"For Ginny," all the Weasleys, including Molly said together.

* * *

"Harry," Hermione said with an uncertain voice. "Are you sure? I mean, it's yours." 

Harry nodded as he pressed his mother's diary into her hands, "I've never been surer about anything in my life. My mother went through a lot of guilt through her life, and reading it helped ease some of mine. It'll help a bit, seeing actual proof that we're not the only ones going through this. Besides, it's more appropriate for a girl to read a girl's diary. Besides, there might be something helpful in there."

Hermione smiled at him and asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Train," he said. "Train harder then ever before. I'm not going to be helpless like I was in Hogsmead, I'm not going to let that happen again."

"You're a strong person Harry; I couldn't keep going if I were in your position."

"I doubt that Mione, I really do."

Hermione's mind went over their conversation earlier. They had risen early in the morning, well aware that Ginny's funeral was later that day, but they both decided not to attend. Guilt was too dominant in both of them, and neither could bare to see the accusing glares of everyone else, not yet at least.

She had spent most of the day in her room, reading various sections of Lily Potter's diary. It was interesting; the woman was full of bright ideas and had an opinion on everything. The topics she wrote about varied from the normal things a girl would write (James Potter, for instance), to things such as politics, history, and even very difficult spells.

As Hermione read into Lily's short adult life, she had found out that Lily had been an Unspeakable. She didn't mention what she did in the Ministry, but Hermione was positive that it had something to do with history. Lily mentioned finding the book that they were all curious in when she was very young, the one written in a different language, but she didn't mention where she found it.

Finally though, Hermione's mind reeled to a stop as she read over one passage again and again. It was close to the end of the book, in fact, Hermione flipped a few pages ahead to find the last entry, dated the day Lily had died. The entry for that day was short and to the point:

_October 31, 1981  
__  
I couldn't do it, I refused to split Harry's soul, that would make him physically like Riddle…and me no better then him. I can't remove his soul and replace it with mine. That would do nothing to help. I don't know what to do anymore, and I fear I've run out of time.  
__  
Lily Marie Potter _

Hermione read that one over and over again before flipping back to the other one, dated October 25, and read each day between that. Suddenly she understood everything. She understood enough to tell Harry, who mentioned he hadn't gotten that far yet. There was no time for him to actually read the book now, but she could tell him what the passage in the unreadable book said.

She quickly jumped up, keeping the diary tucked close to her, as she rushed towards Harry's room.

* * *

Harry sat on his bed, staring at the books floating around him. He had becoming very efficient at casting the wingardium leviosa spell wandless, among other things. In a way he was starting to seem more like his busy haired friend: his guilt made him study more. Looking back, Harry regretted not listening to Hermione when she lectured Ron and him to study harder, saying that they could do much better if they tried. Seeing how fast his skills had accelerated once he tried to learn as much as possible he knew that he should have listened earlier on. He would have been much stronger then he was now if he had. 

He sighed and the books all fell to his bed. He couldn't concentrate; his mind kept going over what happened in Hogsmead. He didn't understand why he didn't know it was Ginny that would be in danger, not Hermione. What Bellatrix said shouldn't have pointed him to his best friend, from the Death Eaters' point of view anyways. It was almost like his mind was trying to tell him something, but he wasn't sure what.

His door being thrown open broke him out of his thoughts. His head snapped in that direction, but he visibly relaxed when he saw it was Hermione who had bounded into the room, his mother's diary in hand.

Hermione threw herself onto the bed beside him and said, "I know what the book says. The one with the runes I couldn't figure out? You're mother managed to figure out how to translate it! She wrote it in here! Apparently she had figured it out when she was very young, but only chose to write it in here…just before the end."

He sat up straighter and said, "You're sure? You mean you finally figured out how I survived?"

A frown started to appear on her once cheery face as she said, "No Harry, I'm sorry. According to her diary…she didn't do anything."

"Nothing?" he asked with surprise.

Shaking her head Hermione said, "Not a thing…unless she changed her mind at the last minute, but even then, she says in this entry that this is the only thing she could find that might help her with that would have taken more then a few minutes to do."

"So how did I survive then?" Harry asked, more to himself then you her.

"Judging from everything we know happened that night," Hermione said uncertainly. "It's almost possible to say…well…you know how some people are just immune to different diseases?"

"Yeah, there's even some weird ones…out there that I've heard of…including in the wizarding world," Harry said to her, before turning his attention back to her point. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"This sounds far off, but…I think you're immune to the killing curse."

"What?!"

He sat up straight, staring at her as if she had grown two extra heads and started calling herself Fluffy.

"Is that possible?"

"That's the thing you are the _first_ person in history to survive the killing curse Harry. I'm sure tons of mothers and fathers died to save their children, throwing themselves between the curse and their baby, but you were the only one to survive…all the others died. Unfortunately, the only was I can think of testing that theory is to throw Avada Kedavra at you again. Of course I am NOT doing that, I don't even think I can cast that curse. I wouldn't anyways, just in case. I'd rather not be the one to kill Harry Potter. Wouldn't that be a feat? I—"

"Hermione," he said while pressing his finger to her lips. As he took it away her cheeks turned bright pink and he said, "You were rambling again."

"I was, wasn't I?" she replied with a laugh.

"So you think I'm immune to the killing curse?"

"How else do you explain it? You were a baby and threw up magical shields that can stop the killing curse, something that no one else in the history of that curse, has done?"

He stared at her and said, "You know how to read the book?"

"Well your mother left the code in the book, so I should be able to figure it out."

He reached out his hand and the old book flew into it. Ignoring the look on her face he said, "Maybe there's something else in here. In the prophecy, it says that I have a power the dark lord knows not…or something similar to that. I asked Dumbledore and he said it was my ability to love. So, love must unleash some sort of power in me, and there seems to be as good a place as any to start looking for something affect by love."

"I'll look, it helps me keep my mind off of things," Hermione replied, a pained look crossing her face. "You look exhausted though, you should really get a little sleep before everyone else comes back."

"Mione, it's three in the afternoon!"

"I know," she said. She got up off of his bed and, hesitantly, kissed his forehead before saying, "You've been working hard. Take it from me, working without rest will run you down eventually."

Before Harry could reply she fled from the room. His mind went over the things she had suggested to him: immunity, love induced shields? He knew his soul was in tact, thankfully, but now he had more questions then he did before. The one that plagued him the most though, had nothing to do with the killing curse, Voldemort, his mother, or anything really relevant to the war. No, there was one thought that kept passing through his mind over and over again. Why on earth was Hermione acting so odd around him?

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

I know I made Molly go to hysterics and probably a little OOC, but she just lost her only daughter…I'd expect her to go a little crazy. Despite what some people may think (haha you know who you are!) about how a mother's love for their child, and how it's stronger then other love, I didn't hear of that from a woman actually. It was my MALE science teacher who said there were actually some tests proving that. I dunno, he never went into detail. Maybe he was making the whole thing up, I dunno, but oh well! Anyways onto bigger and better things.

As for getting around to why the wards fell…yeah I didn't have much about that like I promised. I know why they fell, no one in the story does…well…you'll see.

Then there's the conclusion of the whole 'Lily splitting Harry's soul' thing. Yeah…she didn't do it. I've been planning for Hermione to find that out from the beginning. I know, not what people expected, but now there's more questions I've put in there! We still are going to see why (in my fic at least) Harry survived! And like Hermione said, it couldn't be JUST because Lily died for Harry, there has to be something different about him.

Now points from the reviews:  
-I know many people don't like death, but it's a war and hundreds of people are going to die before this is over. Fortunately we won't hear about many of them until towards the end in this story.

The wards DID NOT fall down all over the wizarding world, only Hogsmead and Hogwarts…for now.

Yes I am a hypocrite and put a tiny romantic sub-plot in, sue me. OK actually don't, I got paid today but I work at McDonalds so I don't get much money.

As for Harry not fighting with everything new he's learned, I actually DID do that for a reason.

So in conclusion, thank you to: mathiasgranger, Freedomstar, Mrs.Scott323, highbrass, Particle Accelerator, hash-hash, holimontski, and Harry Potter Girll for reviewing!  
**_Krystal Lily Potter _**


	20. A Friend From the Past

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Twenty:_** A Friend from the Past  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

Who else is excited? The seventh book comes out on July 21, 2007:) it's gonna be an awesome summer!

* * *

"This is a bad idea." 

"It was your idea."

"I know, but still…it's a bad idea."

Harry rolled his eyes at Hermione as they walked across the snow covered ground. Bundled in winter coats and warmth spells, they trekked through the streets of Godric's Hallow, towards the Potter house. It was a spur of the moment trip, but Hermione insisted that they go.

After reading much of Lily's diary, she had come to the conclusion that there was another book hidden somewhere in the Potter house that could help them. Hermione believed that Lily had actually made a copy of the ancient magic book, but in English. If her theories were right, then there was a good possibility that it would have been kept in the house, hidden like the box was.

They carefully walked up the slippery steps and into the old house. It seemed that the magic that had supported the house for so many years was finally starting to fade, it looked much more decayed then the last time they had been there.

"Careful," Harry said as Hermione began to climb up the steps. "Falling through staircases isn't the funnest thing to live through."

She nodded, knowing that he was referring to when the steps in the Riddle house had broken underneath him. Carefully they climbed up the steps and onto the second floor.

"I think we should check under her bed," Hermione said as they walked towards the room.

"Wouldn't that have been a little obvious?" he asked skeptically.

"Not if she hides things the same way I do. In Hogwarts, I shared a dorm with the two biggest gossips in the school, plus I was best friends with you. Add those two things together and they were constantly trying to get secrets out of me, and even went so far as to try and find my diary. I hid it under my bed, inside the insulation of it," Hermione explained. "Your mother didn't want anyone to find that book, so it's as good a place to look as any."

"I guess, but I don't understand, why leave her diary out, just in case someone got a hold of it?"

"Maybe only someone related to her by blood could remove it," Hermione suggested.

"Dumbledore knew about it though," he pointed out. "He told Petunia to tell me about it in the letter."

"That just supports my theory. He probably wanted to see in her diary, because he knew your mother was well on her way to discovering the horcruxes, so that diary would have been a great asset to him. However, he couldn't actually open it, so he sent you to get it so you could find what he couldn't," she replied.

Harry decided to just agree with her for now, so that they wouldn't start arguing with one another. They entered the main bedroom in the Potter house, and he laid on his stomach to look under the bed.

"I can't see anything, and I'm a little too big to get under here."

"That's because you've been eating right," Hermione said with a grin at him. She laid beside him and carefully pulled herself underneath the bed. After a moment she said, "I don't think it's under here. Can you help me out?"

Harry carefully yanked her from under the bed, and they sat on the ground.

"Maybe the book doesn't exist."

"I'm positive it does. She said that she was finished translating the book, but there aren't enough markings in the book itself for her to have done it there. There has to be a book in this house somewhere," Hermione argued.

They continued to sit in silence for a moment before she said, "Harry, where would _you_ have hid it?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" he asked with confusion.

"Well, from reading this diary, and from knowing you, I've come to a few conclusions. On the outside you are more like your father than your mother…that much is painfully obvious. But another thing, after reading about everything from your mother's perspective…you are a lot like her, on the inside. Brave, loyal, powerful, determined…and you both have terrible tempers," she added that last part jokingly before her face became serious again. "But really, your outlooks on life, from what I can tell, are the same. You both seem to think that whatever you do, you need to do it alone, and neither of you seemed to realize that there are plenty of people around you willing to help."

Harry smiled at her sadly before looking up at the ceiling. He thought for a moment before saying, "The library."

"What?"

"I'd hide it in the library. What better place to hide a book than with hundreds of other books."

Hermione bit her lip and said, "That would make sense, but is there even a library in this house?"

"Erm…"

Both of them leapt to their feet and looked towards the door, their eyes wide with shock. The door downstairs had been thrown open, and it wasn't just the wind. They could hear footsteps coming from just down the staircase.

* * *

"They're not here," Ron said as he, Sirius, Remus and Tonks entered the Granger cottage. The three adults gave him strange looks; they had not even stepped into the cottage properly for him to know that. 

"How do you know?" Sirius decided to ask the question that was on all of their minds.

He shrugged and said, "I just…do…"

Tonks moved past the three men and made her way to the kitchen to get a glass of water. On her way in she spotted a note stuck to the fridge. Taking a hold of it she yelled back, "They've gone to Godric's Hallow!"

"I told you they weren't here," she heard Ron reply smugly. "I'll go find them."

"I think its best we all go," Remus said hesitantly. "And…I've been thinking…we should put up a new Fidelus charm on there and on Grimmauld Place."

They all stared at him and Ron asked, "Why didn't we do that earlier?"

"There was no time," Tonks said, coming to the defense of her boyfriend.

"Let's get Harry and Hermione and discuss this more," Sirius interrupted, before Ron could reply. "It's Harry's house so he gets to decide later."

"I don't know where Godric's Hallow is," Tonks said, knowing that there was a good chance she could end up a mile away from the others if she didn't aim right.

"That's what side-long apparation is for," Remus said with a grin.

* * *

Harry cautiously and quietly slipped out of his parents' room, pressing himself up to the wall beside the staircase. Hermione stared at him and made a motion telling him to get back in the room, but he just shook his head at her. 

Carefully he looked around the corner and saw nothing at the bottom of the stairs. He slowly walked towards the stairs, making sure to scan all areas as he slowly crept down the stairs.

A loud, piercing shriek filled the air, startling him. He jumped and the edge of the stair ended up crushing under his weight, causing him to tumble down the stairs.

A string of curses left his mouth as he slammed into the floor. He pushed himself up, blinking away the pain in his head. He started to turn when another scream, this time a word, filled his ears, and his mind froze with fear.

"MINE!" a woman's voice yelled. "MINE! MINE! MINE!"

Harry couldn't turn around to look at what was behind him. Visions of the woman that had been in the torture chamber filled his mind as he felt panic flood through him. He had never really gotten over that, yet he hadn't been in a situation so strikingly familiar with the Riddle house before, so he had never really reacted badly. Now, hearing those screams of 'mine' made panic fill his mind, rending his body useless in every way.

A spell slammed into the ground beside him, and he heard the same, unknown voice yell and jump away from him.

Hermione flew down the stairs and put herself between Harry and the mysterious woman and snapped, "You stay away."

The woman backed away from Hermione's want, bumping into a table. The table rocked, and a small, baby doll fell off of it. The woman screamed again, dove to the floor, and retrieved it.

Seeing a distraction, Hermione turned to Harry and said, "Harry, get up." He slowly stood up, but she noticed that his skin was paler then normal, and there was a slightly terrified look to his face. "What's wrong?"

"The Thing," was all he said. Hermione had heard the story about the freakish woman under the staircase, and how she was referred to as Thing. Her brown eyes widened in shock and she quickly faced the woman again, stretching her arms out slightly so she was shielding Harry as much as she could.

"Get away," Hermione snapped. "Get away you monster!"

When Harry was finally able to focus right, he looked at the woman and said, "That's not her Hermione, but it reminds me of her. At least the way she spoke."

No, she definitely wasn't Thing. She was an average height woman with long, dirty, and matted blond hair, and wide, startled looking ocean blue eyes. It was painfully obvious that at one time she was a very beautiful woman, and she still could be, but there was an insane look to her. Behind her blue eyes was a fierce look of pain, and her dirty appearance didn't help much.

"Mine," she said to them, defensively now. Harry frowned and took a step around Hermione, towards the woman. The woman backed up, clutching the doll close to her chest.

"What's yours?" he asked slowly.

"House," she snapped. "It's my house."

"No, it's mine," Harry said, a cautious note to his voice. His wand was tightly clenched into his right hand, but still kept hidden by his sleeve so that he wouldn't startle the woman into attacking them. "My parents used to live here."

If possible, the woman's eyes went wider and she let out a tiny squeak before saying, "Harry? Little bitty Harry James?"

Hermione came up to his side, glaring at her with a heated gaze as she said, "Who wants to know?"

The woman let out a happy, yet insane laugh as she said, "Little bitty Harry James is all grown up, do you see that baby?" Her attention was turned to the doll in her arms. "He doesn't seem to remember me and you though, no he doesn't. It's ok baby, I'm sure cousin Harry will remember soon."

"What?" he asked slowly.

"My baby girl," the woman said proudly. "I live here sometimes. I'm Alyssa Bones."

Harry visibly jerked backwards at the name. One of his mother's best friends had been named Alyssa Bones. His mind went back to the first time he, Ron and Hermione had ever laid eyes on the house, and the conversation with the man who had met them on the street.

_Ron and Hermione glanced around to Harry who shrugged and Ron asked, "Does the Potter family still own it?"_

_"Yeah, I think I heard something that the wife's friend is in custody of the property until someone becomes of age…something like that," the man said._

"You were my mom's friend," he said, and felt stupid for stating the obvious.

Tears appeared in Alyssa's eyes as she let out a loud sob and said, "Lily's all gone, but not like my baby here."

Hermione's hand was now clenching his upper arm tightly and she stood a little closer to him. The woman's insanity was evident, but what disturbed her the most was how Alyssa seemed to be perfectly normal for an insane person in the magical world. Normally all memories were lost, the person went completely quite, or the person was a complete raving lunatic, and only a few cases were the person still seemed normal, or at least that's how it was in the magical world.

"Hermione! Harry!" Ron's voice suddenly yelled out, causing both of them to jump and Alyssa to back away again, glaring at the red head that entered the house. "There you two are…who is that?"

"Who's who?" Tonks asked as she entered the house behind him. She stared at the woman oddly for a moment, but didn't say anything.

Remus was the next to enter, and went pale at the sight of her. "N-no…it can't be."

"Moony," Alyssa whispered, carefully walking forwards. She quickly retreated as the last person entered the house.

"What can't be?" Sirius asked as he looked around. He took a few steps into the house, a pained look on his face. This was the last place his dear friend had taken his last breath. It took him a moment to notice the extra person in the room, but when he did all color vanished from him, and a shock look appeared in his own eyes. "A-A-A—"

"Look baby," Alyssa said to the doll cautiously. "He's back."

Harry, Hermione, Ron and Tonks looked between Sirius and Alyssa with curiosity, while Remus simply had a sad look on his face.

"Aly?"

"YOU TOLD ME SHE WAS GONE!" Alyssa suddenly screamed. "YOU TOLD ME MY BABY GIRL WAS GONE! SHE IS HERE! SEE! MY BABY IS HERE! MY KAYLEE!"

Sirius winced as he said, "Alyssa? She…I thought you were dead."

"Everyone's dead Padfoot," she snapped. "Vera, Karmen, Lily, James, me, you…Kaylee…"

Sirius took a step backwards, shaking his head roughly. He looked more distressed then Harry had ever seen before.

Remus walked towards Alyssa and said, "Yes, Kaylee's right here Alyssa. How about you come with us away from here? Kaylee can have a bath."

Alyssa seemed delighted with that prospect as she said, "Yes, yes, baby needs a bathy."

Remus motioned for Tonks to come with him as he carefully steered Alyssa Bones out of the room. With a concerned look at her cousin, Tonks followed Remus out the door.

"Sirius?" Harry asked after a moment.

Sirius leaned against the wall and slumped down it. He buried his face in his hands before saying, "Ron, do you remember what I said to your mother? About losing a child?"

A confused look flashed over Ron's face as he said, "Yes, you said you lost a daughter."

"Alyssa Bones," he said sadly while looking up. "Was my girlfriend at the time. We had a daughter and named her Kaylee Maureen. She was killed though, murdered actually. I-I never stopped blaming myself for that. Alyssa went…well as you saw…she had a long and extremely hard pregnancy, and to have the baby killed only six months later…it sent her over the edge. I—"

Hermione knelt down next to Sirius and gave him a comforting hug. Ron and Harry looked on sadly.

"It must have been hard coming here at any rate," Harry muttered. "And now to have this happen…I'm so sorry Sirius."

"You didn't know," Sirius said sadly while looking at Harry. "But why come here?"

"We were looking for a book," Hermione said slowly. "We just wanted a book Lily wrote."

They sat in silence before Sirius cleared his throat and said, "I can show you the library then…I don't know. Lets just find the book you wanted, it'll keep me distracted."

The three friends followed Black through the house, until they reached what looked like a broom closet on the first floor. He opened the door and walked through the narrow hall, only to come out in a large room on the other side. There was a fairly large library for a house that size, and it was painfully obvious that magic was used to conceal how big the house really was.

"There's so much here," Hermione said. "What we're looking for is a book with nothing on the covers, and it's probably handwritten."

The four of them split up, only doing a half hearted search in the library. All of their minds were off in other places; all of their minds were lost in the past.

Ron kicked the floor angrily. His eyes narrowed as he quietly cursed Voldemort. For once no small twinge of fear passed through him at the thought of the Dark Lord's name. Only deep disgust and hatred. He finally understood why Harry had never wanted money, why he had said Ron had it all. He knew now what it was like to lose family, and he knew he had to fight for his sister's memory.

He stopped walking and leaned against one of the shelves. He didn't know how he was supposed to get revenge for his little sister. Bellatrix was captured, but he was in a waiting line of people to get his hands around her neck. Neville, Sirius and Harry had all called their turn first.

It was at that moment that Ron Weasley vowed to put more work into training. He hadn't been putting his all into it, he hadn't seen the point. He knew Harry was more powerful then he, and Hermione was smarter, but he knew he could do better then he was now.

He jerked away from the shelf, cursing as several books tumbled to the ground. He picked them up and turned to put them away, but froze in his spot. He dropped the books to the ground again and took a thick, unmarked book out of the shelves and flipped it open. The title was in Runes, with a translation underneath, and the name Lily Marie Evans Potter signed at the bottom.

Even though no one had told him, he knew this was what they were searching for. A wide grin appeared on his face as he yelled, "I've got it!

He met the others back in the center of the room and showed them it. Hermione had grinned brightly and said, "You're brilliant Ron!"

"I know," he replied, grinning slightly as a small flicker of barely noticeable jealousy passed over Harry's face. No one would have noticed it aside from him though.

* * *

"What are we going to do with her?" Tonks asked Remus as Alyssa washed the little doll, insisting that it needed a bath before she did. It was only the logical thing to do as a good mother. 

"I don't know," Remus said with a sad sigh. "When Sirius was forced to live in Grimmauld place, he had a lot of time to think things over, and he told me that he blamed himself for his daughter's death. He also assumed that Alyssa had died, because she just vanished out of sight. No one heard of her again, until now."

Tonks opened her mouth to say something, but screamed as cracking was heard. Alyssa jumped up with alarm, holding the wet doll close to her as she looked out the bathroom window.

"They sky is falling baby! Just like the book!" she cried out happily after a moment.

Remus and Tonks exchanged a look as they rushed onto the patio, watching as the same thing that happened over Hogsmead happened over the cottage. The anti-apparation wards, as well as muggle repellant ones, all started shattering and falling to the ground.

"Why is this happening?" Tonks asked. "All over the wards have been breaking over houses. So far the only major thing to be revealed was Hogwarts, but who knows how long that will last if we can't stop this."

"I-I don't know," Remus said after a moment of thought. "But it almost seems as if…the magic is dying."

"How can magic die?!"

"Name one thing that lasts forever Nymph," he said to her. "Maybe it's like muggle technology…maybe the old stuff is becoming useless and we need to find new ways to help again."

"Well we are pretty far behind the muggle world," Tonks replied. "At least 50 years, technology wise."

"Darkness is coming," Alyssa said in a sing song voice. "That's right baby, it's getting stronger. It's eating the light."

They stared back at her, and both silently agreed that they wanted to believe she was only a raving lunatic, but it was no use. Both could see the clear sanity in her insanity, but neither of them, nor anyone else in the wizarding world wanted to acknowledge that darkness was winning.

It was easy to see though because the magic was still strong, not yet dying, but all of the light magic that was in use to keep them safe was rapidly starting to vanish.

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

Yes, another OC shows up. I DO promise, these people all have relevant roles in this story. Alyssa isn't the last of Lily's friends, I'll tell you that the long dead Sarah Prewett is the missing link to all my OCs and their purpose, but it will all be explained so please bear with me.

As of Sirius's daughter, well I've used her before in other stories, but I needed Alyssa to be insane in this one, and I figured that was as good a reason as any. Plus it gave Sirius another reason to hate Bellatrix (I only said that his cousin killed his daughter, but it's painfully obvious which one did it).

Just keep with me a little longer, because everything will tie together soon! Promise!

Points from last chapter:  
Molly wasn't thinking straight, she lost her daughter and was sort of mental at the time.  
-Harry is completely clueless about Hermione  
-Yes Harry has a complete Soul

Thank you to: FreedomStar, SiriusLeeBlack09, burnunit, Supercushion, holimontski, pstibbons, and ps.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	21. The Ritual

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Twenty One:_** The Ritual  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

* * *

"_Can you know something, and never repeat it again?" Lily Evans whispered in a low tone._

_The three girls around her all exchanged nervous looks before the one with fiery red hair said, "I'll take the secret to the grave with me."_

"_Potters stick with their friends," the girl with bronze hair and sapphire eyes agreed. "And never rat one another out."_

"_You don't have to worry about me Lils," the blond said with a small smile. "I'll probably forget anyways."_

"_Alright," Lily said. "Aly, Sar, Karmy, I need your help in something. James can't know, no one else can. I've got help on the outside, but it's not enough."_

"_What are you talking about?" Sarah asked slowly._

_  
Lily pushed her dark red hair out of her eyes, the light bouncing off her engagement ring as she said, "What if I told you, that I knew the key to defeating Voldemort?"_

* * *

Harry awoke with a startled jump when he heard his door fly open. He rubbed the sleep away from his eyes and went to grab his glasses, before realizing that his vision was clear and that he didn't have any real glasses anymore…he hadn't in months.

It was still dark, but the sun was starting to rise in the distance. He decided not to look at the time, but instead he decided to identify the person who awoke him.

"Alyssa?"

"Shh, the baby is asleep," she shushed him. He nodded, being used to the woman's obsession with the doll, her words didn't faze him a bit.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I've been seeing things," she whispered. "Seeing your mama and my sisters…"

A few months had passed, and the air started to warm. In those few months the Granger cottage found itself with a new residence, since they had no clue what to do with Alyssa. The cottage had been crowded, but they dare not leave. Every night they put new wards up, and those shattered every morning, but for now it seemed to be the safest place to be, since no one would guess to look there. In those few months it seemed almost as if Alyssa sanity, as well as all of her memories, were slowly returning to her. She would wake Harry up every other odd night, telling him about how she saw his mother and her 'sisters', as she referred to Sarah Prewett and Karmen Potter.

"What did you see?" he asked her with a yawn. Most of the time she simply told him stories about Lily growling James, or when James took him flying and she had jinxed frying pans to randomly attack him during the day.

"Your mama said that she knew a way to destroy Voldemort," Alyssa said with delight. "Isn't that great Harry James?"

Harry stared at her and said slowly, "What exactly happened?"

"Your mama was talking to me, Sar and Karmy," she said seriously. "And told us to keep it a secret. She said she already had someone working on the inside."

Harry got to face and said, "Are you sure?"

"Yes?" she asked him.

He nodded and said, "Ok, you better check on Kaylee."

She leapt to her feet and was out of the room without so much as a glance back at him. Harry rubbed the corners of his eyes as he grabbed some fresh clothes and headed out to use the shower, before everyone else woke up.

As he let the water soak over his body, he thought about everything that had happened. He had known that Regulus and Karmen were somehow involved with the horcruxes, as was his mother, but now it appeared that Sarah and Alyssa were as well. If that were true, while all that was happening, what was his father, Sirius and Remus doing? When he asked Sirius about Karmen mentioning the horcrux he had said no, and Lily hadn't told anyone either.

After finishing his shower and heading out to make breakfast (Alyssa barely paid attention to things such as cooking, saying that she preferred to eat fruites, so it was still only Sirius, Remus and he doing all the cooking, but Ron had been picking it up lately as well), still mulling over his thoughts. He was slowly starting to see that everything was connected, and that if one thing didn't happen nothing else could.

If Regulus hadn't found the horcrux originally, then he would not be dead, and neither would Dumbledore. Or at least they wouldn't have died the way they did. Would Karmen Potter still be alive if she hadn't stolen the chalice?

That left him wondering, why would Regulus, and Karmen write their initials on the notes they left Voldemort? It would have been much safer.

As he flipped the pancakes he was making, another thought came to his mind: what if they were trying to distract Voldemort from the ring leader of the operation?

After making a fairly large stack of pancakes, and putting them in the oven to keep them away from the open air, he sat down and thought more about that possibility.

Harry knew for a fact that his mother had, somehow, started to suspect that Voldemort used horcruxes when she was only young, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized that she hadn't informed Dumbledore of her findings. She had pinpointed where the item of Ravenclaw had been at one point of time, and from the look of the house Dumbledore had obviously not been there before. And if he was right about her being in league with Regulus and Karmen, then she knew the horcrux were both removed but had not informed the former Headmaster of Hogwarts.

Hermione was the next one awake. She gave him a warm smile as she sat down to eat, reading the translated book. Harry and Ron had taken their tries at reading it, but the information was very complex, and Hermione had jokingly said that she would make a 'guide for dummies' for them. They had thought it was purely a joke at first until they found her rewriting Lily's direct translation of it.

"Hermione?" he asked after a moment of silent eating.

"Hmm?" she muttered, her eyes not leaving the book. She had been reading it for a few months already and was not yet done.

"You know how we agreed that Regulus and Karmen were working together, because they left pretty much the same note with a fake horcrux?"

"Yes?" her eyes snapped up to his face.

"I think they might have been working for someone."

"Why would you say that?" Hermione asked curiously.

They turned as, surprisingly, Ron entered the room. He appeared well rested and had a large smile on his face. Without greeting them he sat down, helping himself to the pancakes that were in the oven. He looked from Harry, to Hermione and said, with mild surprise, "You have no idea?"

This intrigued both Harry and Hermione. She stared at Ron and asked, "Pardon?"

"I see where Harry's coming from. Why would Karmen and Regulus sign their names, well their initials to the letters? It would be easy to track them down…that _is_ a really bad strategy, if they were trying to save themselves. If, however, they were trying to distract Voldemort from the brains of the operation…that seems like a pretty good move to me."

"Exactly what I was thinking," Harry said with a nod. "And this morning, Alyssa woke me up with a dream. She said that this one was about my mom and her friends. My mother said that she knew the key to defeating Voldemort."

"You think you're mother was at the top of the operation?" Hermione asked.

"Well it would make sense. She knew about the horcrux, or at least suspected it since she was young, and I'm nearly positive she didn't go into details with Dumbledore either."

"And Alyssa can't remember anything relevant to it?" Ron questioned with a frown.

"She wasn't the only one there," Harry said after a moment. "Alyssa wasn't the only one who my mother told, Karmen was there and so was…Sarah."

"Yes, she was mentioned in your mother's journal," Hermione said. "Sarah Prewett, right?"

Ron made an odd sound, causing both of them to look at him. His blue eyes were wide and his face was pale. Harry and Hermione shared a worried look before Harry suddenly realized why Ron acted that way.

"Sorry, I forgot that she was your aunt," he said apologetically.

"No, that's ok, it's not like I met her before," Ron said with a deep sigh. "My mum didn't think much of her, but I spoke to my uncles about Sarah and they said that she was a very free spirit, and a very loyal friend. So if she did know about the horcrux, she would have gone to the grave to protect your mother, if Lily was the one in charge."

"So in theory Lily, Alyssa, Karmen and Sarah were all involved with the hunt; that makes sense because they're all friends. But Lily was married to James, and Alyssa was dating Sirius, so where were they in all of this? And where does Regulus come in?" Hermione asked. "I imagine none of them got a good impression of him because of Sirius."

Ron stared at Hermione for a second before saying, "There's nothing that can show us?"

"What?" Harry asked with a slightly amused tone at his friend's vague question.

"No, I'm serious, is there a spell that can show us the past? I mean, I'm as sketched out as the next person of Divination, but looking into the past must be different," he said.

"Aside from looking into memories or using a time turner, I've never actually heard of looking into the past, at least not the way you're implying," Hermione replied.

Ron sighed again and slumped down into his chair. He really had thought he was onto something. From what little that he had read of the ancient book, and from the even smaller amount that he had understood, there were spells in it that no one had thought of in thousands of years. He wasn't sure how old it was, but it was old enough to be lost in time, one of a kind.

As he stared at the book, for a moment, Ron wondered how Lily Potter had obtained it. He knew for a fact that she was some type of Unspeakable working in the ministry, particularly with history, whatever that section did. There must have been plenty of opportunities for her to find it, as she had mentioned traveling in part of her diary.

Harry had given Ron the opportunity to read the writings of Lily Potter, just to see if there was anything he or Hermione had missed.

Ron suddenly jolted up in his chair, eyes wide with shock. There was something they had missed, something in the very beginning of the diary that hadn't seemed important at first, but stuck out like a neon light, how that Ron thought about it.

"She got that book when she was younger," he blurted out. "Your mother Harry, she had that book before she started the horcrux search. I remember reading about a book of runes in her diary…I had thought it was ancient runes, but thinking back it couldn't have been…she mentioned all her other class books in full detail! Don't ask how I remember this, I just do."

"Alright," Harry said slowly. "Let's say you're right and my mother had this when she was younger. What does that have to do with anything?"

"How did she find out about the horcruxes in the first place? From the sounds of it, Dumbledore didn't even _really_ know if they existed until Voldemort attacked _you_, yet your mother and her friends had located and even removed several of them. You know how you always say to follow your gut, Harry? (Harry nodded to him, curiosity evident in his expression) Well I think that I'm right, and she translated that book, found a spell to look in the past, and probably saw Voldemort making the horcrux! It would make perfect sense!"

Hermione's mouth opened for a moment in shock before she said, "That does make sense. If the spell she used was in this book, then Dumbledore wouldn't have known about it and he wouldn't have been able to see what she saw."

"Strategically I think it would make sense to find out more about horcrux first, especially if it was the first time Lily had heard of them," Ron said thoughtfully. "So she must have gone to Dumbledore, and he must have gotten the idea from her!"

Harry stared at Ron and said, "That does make sense…a lot more sense then most things do. Hermione try to find something to do with time in there."

She nodded and started skimming over the book, making sure to catch the important parts of ever sentence but not really paying attention to it at the same time.

Ron smiled slightly and was glad that he had been able to help. Harry always said to go with your gut, something that he had never done, but Ron was glad that he was doing it now. It made him realize how much stronger of a person he was becoming.

* * *

There was an Order meeting that night, and Remus, Tonks and Sirius had gone, leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione alone in the house. They all sat in Harry's room, none of them speaking.

Hermione's eyes flickered nervously from Harry to Ron, before saying, "I found it."

"You found it?" both boys asked with surprise.

"The spell, you were right Ron, there was a spell. There's a warning by this though, one written by your mother Harry. She says that it's extremely dangerous, and the people performing it should trust each other entirely. She also wrote that this spell will only allow you to watch the past, but not be able to touch it."

"Like in a pensive?" Harry asked.

"Yes," she replied. "From the looks of it, this spell was the original version of that. Here's the good part though, you don't actually need a memory to go back to watch. There is a downside, unfortunately unlike a pensive, which he relatively harmless to use, this spell is very dangerous. It's more of a ritual of sorts."

"What do we have to do?" Ron said while staring at her.

Once again the nervous flicker appeared on her face before she said, "According to this book it's water, not blood, that is important for the rituals because all life needs water to live, and even if dirty, there is more water on the earth than anything else. This is important because most of these spells and rituals have to do with water in one way or another. This one happens to be a bad one though."

"Keep going," Harry urged her.

Hesitantly she looked up from the book to him and said, "The person receiving the vision has to be completely submerged in outdoor water, and no magic is allowed to be used on them to allow them to breathe because it will cancel out the ritual."

They fell silence before Ron said, "What do we have to do?"

"Three people are needed for this to work," Hermione said. "One to see the past, one to perform the actual magic, and the third is needed to hold down the one receiving the vision so that they don't come back above water. The third person is also a link that pulls the visionary's mind back to the present once the ritual is over."

"There are three of us," Harry said.

"A perfect number," Ron agreed.

"I can't," Hermione said, shaking her head viciously. "I can't…please Harry…"

"What's wrong?" Potter asked with confusion. "You can perform the spell and Ron can hold me down, it's as simple as that."

"No it's not, Harry. Not at all! It's specified very clearly that the person holding you down must be of the _opposite_ gender."

"Why?" Ron blurted out.

"Natural attraction," Harry said. "The male mind is centered around the female."

Hermione laughed slightly and said, "I don't think that's it, but that's how the ritual goes. I don't think I can do that to you Harry."

She looked down at her feet, and felt a bright red flush appear on her face as Harry gently grabbed her chin and tilted her head up so that she was looking at him. He gave her a serious stare before saying, "If this will help clear everything up, I want to do it. Please Hermione?"

Tears welded up in her eyes, but she nodded her head. Harry smiled before stepping back from her and turning to face Ron. "Think you're up to doing this mate?"

Ron took the book from Hermione and stared at the incantation before saying, "Yeah, as long as I can keep the book with me to help with some of these words I'll be fine. Where are we going to do this?"

"There's an ocean right out there," Harry said. "The book says it has to be outdoor water so might as well make good of what we've got."

"That water's freezing," Hermione quietly warned.

"I know, but all water will be this time of year," he replied grimly. "Let's do this."

"There's one last thing," the sole female said, causing both males to pause and stare at her again. "We can only do this once. That was a warning from Lily as well. It takes a lot of power and is only advised to be used once by a person, and once only. That includes all three jobs for this."

"So we have to get it right and see what we want this time," Ron said. "No pressure then."

Harry chuckled at his friend's dry resort, whereas Hermione didn't look nearly as amused.

* * *

"The water's freezing," Harry said as he took his first steps into the waves.

"I told you it would be," Hermione said as she followed him into the water. "We have to be deep enough for me to completely submerge you, so we need to go about waist deep into the water."

Ron stepped into the shallow water, wincing at the bitter cold water that assaulted his ankles. The book was held tightly in his arms, but there was a waterproof charm just in case he dropped it into the ocean.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked him with amusement.

"I have to be in the water too apparently," Ron said while reading the book. "So that I can make a connection with you. I only need to be in the shallows though. Hermione has to be touching you. And remember, you have to be concentrating on what you want to see."

Harry nodded from the waste deep water before looking at Hermione and asking, "Ready?"

"No," she replied with a tiny sob. Harry put a comforting hand on her shoulder before letting himself float in the water. With a confident look at Hermione he motioned for her to push him down.

She put one hand over his chest, the other on his legs, and pushed him under the water. Just before he was completely submerged he took a great breath of air. Both of them closed their eyes like the book had instructed.

Ron held his hand out and began to recite the incantation:

"Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw."

Harry thought of his mother, he thought of the horcrux, he thought of the book. He wanted to know how Lily, Regulus, Karmen, Sarah and Alyssa were all connected. His lungs were starting to burn, and he had a desire to start kicking to get to the surface, or to open it eyes at the very least. He managed to keep himself calm.

_Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw_

He suddenly felt his body jerk as it tried to get above the water, but Hermione's hands kept him pressed down. His body was trying to get up, but his mind was praising Hermione for keeping him down.

Ron watched Harry struggle to get above the water, and he watched the tears streaking out of Hermione's closed eyes. He recitied the words over and over again, just like the book told him to.

_Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw_

A glowing, red aura was starting to appear around Ron, but he didn't notice. He was worried that the ritual wasn't working. He had thought he was ready to do this, but maybe he wasn't as strong as he thought he was.

Hermione sobbed as she kept her eyes closed tightly, not seeing the green aura that surrounded her. She hated what she was doing, but she could feel Harry's rational side trying to ease her pain, but it was no use. She was drowning her best friend. She knew that if she pulled him up, not only would he be angry with her, but he might be harmed from all of the magic that was surrounding them. Terror passed over her body when she felt him stop struggling, but she couldn't open her eyes, not yet.

Harry finally let out the air he had been holding in, and he felt his whole body jerk from lack of oxygen. It was painful, but he didn't open his eyes just like Hermione. He didn't see the blue glow around his body. Slowly he faded from consciousness, losing all feeling in his body.

_Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw_

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

…I just made Hermione drown Harry! Haha I'm twisted! Next chapter…well I'm not telling you! That'll ruin the surprise.

Those words, the ritual ones, they are random sentences involving water, showing the past, and so on, written DaVinci style (right to left and backwards), but I think I might have accidentally deleted some letters in the backwards typing process so it might not completely make sense. Plus I moved letters around. It's really not important though.

In the story, just so everyone's on the same page as me, a couple months have gone by since the last chapter. The last one took place in late January, early February and this one takes place in mid April. There hasn't really been anything interesting happening in that time, just intense training. When I go back and edit this after it's all written I'll probably add a chapter or two just going through all of that, but for now there are certain things I want to get around to…and those things have to happen in certain time frames.

You all know what this means of course! We're getting down to the final chapters pretty soon. Unfortunately I can't tell you how many chapters are in this story because the numbers keep changing. I've added at least five extra chapters then originally planned because of random ideas that just pop into my head while I'm writing, and take a chapter on their own!

Points from Reviews:  
-I will be getting around to why Harry survived, but I can promise you that in THIS story, it wasn't simply Lily's sacrifice that did it.

-Yes this is dark, but what can you expect in the middle of a war that they appear to be losing?  
-Yes some things lack realism, I'm not gonna lie, but so do the Harry Potter books in general

-Alyssa's sanity is long gone

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! FreedomStar, Demonically Angelic Neko88, pupadawg66, holimontski and JDZ. I really appreciate the feedback!

**_Krystal Lily Potter _**


	22. Chain Reactions: The Rise

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Twenty Two:_** Chain Reactions – The Rise  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

This is going to be a long one! But finally the mystery of all the OCs is revealed.

* * *

_Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw_

Harry's emerald green eyes snapped open as he violently lurched forwards. He inhaled the air deeply, and shook his head roughly, but found that he wasn't wet in the least. He looked around and saw that he was in a grassy clearing with a brook running down the center of it. It looked oddly familiar.

A gasp and a splash forced him to look over towards the water, and he was shocked to see a young woman with dark red hair sitting in the water with a stunned look on her face. Beside her, a tall young man with messy raven black hair and bright hazel eyes stared at her with worry.

"Are you alright Lily?" he asked, clearly startled. "I just…I just tried to drown you! The spell didn't even work!"

Another woman cleared her voice and stepped forward. She looked startlingly similar to his mother, except for her ice blue eyes, and she was shorter and smaller in structure. As he watched the three of them it became painfully obvious what had happened to him. The ritual had worked and he was watching the past. Judging from what he was watching Ron had been right in suggesting that Lily had used the spell as well.

Lily nodded at James Potter as they both moved to the edge of the water. Vera Evans carefully stepped out of the water, quickly drying her legs with a spell.

"Thank you for helping James," Lily said after a moment. "The spell worked."

"It worked?" he asked with mild surprise.

Lily nodded and said, "I'm sorry for just showing up at your house, and asking you to drown me, but I needed a male to do it, and I knew you wouldn't let me drown. I'm even sorrier for what I have to do now."

James stared at Lily with confusion as she nodded towards her older sister. James spun around, only to be hit with a powerful obliviate charm. His eyes glazed over for a moment, and when he shook himself back to consciousness all James Potter knew was that he was out in the field behind his house for some unknown reason, and he was soaked to the bone.

Harry watched as the scene began to ripple around him, like he was looking at a lake with a stone thrown into the center of it. He watched the small waves, feeling slightly sleepy as he did so. His eyes closed, but only for a moment before he was forced to open them at a loud, feminine voice.

"You are not erasing my memory Lily Marie Evans," he heard a sharp voice say. "If you do I'll report you for underage magic."

"Vera," fourteen year old Lily Evans growled at her older sister. "We erased James's memory so that he wouldn't be in danger! If you keep that memory you're in just as much trouble!"

"So be it then," Vera replied smoothly. The eighteen year old straightened out her skirt and glared at her younger sister for a moment. "I'm older, remember? I say I'm keeping my memory, and I'll be damned if you try to erase it."

Lily let out a frustrated growl as she stormed up the stairs of the house. It was only then that Harry realized that they were in Privet Drive. He remembered Petunia briefly mentioning how she had inherited the house from her parents after their death, something he had never thought about before now.

Lily walked down the familiar hallway, and walked into the room that Harry would reside in some twenty years later. It was still small, but it looked warm and cozy compared to how he was used to it. Lily flopped onto the bed and pulled out the book. A thoughtful look crossed her face as she muttered, "I know you split your soul Tom, and I know that you had an obvious obsession with Hogwarts, so is that where you soul is? Hiding in plain sight, or is there more to this?"

Harry wished that he could yell out to her, but this was no more than an uncontrolled dream to him. All he could do was sit back and watch the events unfold. His vision became watery again, this time for a longer period of time. He felt sleepy, but then a jolt went through his body, similar to earlier. He would have to ask Hermione and Ron later what they thought this odd kind of traveling would be.

_**Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw**_

"Young master, you is needing your rest, my mistress says so," the voice of Kreacher filled Harry's ears. "Yous has much to do in the morning."

Harry turned slightly, recognizing the room they he was standing in without hesitation. He was in Grimmauld Place, and based on the time period he thought he was in, that means that the Blacks would still be thriving there.

He looked around quickly when he heard the springs on a bed squeak, and saw a young man with brown hair and bright grey eyes, looking at the houseelf warily. This man didn't look a thing like Sirius, the only thing that they had in common was the color of their eyes. By the way he carried himself, and the way he stared at Kreacher, Harry could see a slight likeness to Draco Malfoy in him, in the respects that he appeared to be cocky and self-assured.

"I will go to bed when I choose elf," Regulus Black growled angrily. "Get out of here, you disgusting thing." He quickly used his wand to launch a pile of clothes at Kreacher, who dodged them with a terrified look. The elf composed itself as much as it could, and left with a crack and giving Regulus a glare that matched the ones Harry was accustom to.

Regulus sat on the padded chair in his room, leaning over a fine looking desk that would be very beat up when Sirius finally came to reside in the residence again. He stared at something in front of him intently, and without any way to know that someone else was looking over his shoulder, he didn't bother shielding the notes from view.

_The Dark Lord says that he visited a cave to relive childhood memories. Apparently that was the first place where he had tortured muggles, even as a young boy. He was quite proud of it, yet he was firm about not giving the location of these caves, something very outside of his character. He usually enjoys presenting his followers with great details of his disgusting ways as a child, yet this story had very few details of location. I wonder if this is something important to him? I wonder if I should go to Dumbledore with this information?_

Harry looked up at Regulus as he finished writing the last line. It was only a lose sheet of paper, but it appeared to be a diary entry of some sorts. He took a moment to realize what the writing meant, that Regulus was already looking for a way to get out of being a Death Eater, and he was on the verge of going to Dumbledore.

Harry wished he could urge the youngest Black to do so, but it would be like talking to the television, urging the people on a game show to answer a question correctly. He watched as Regulus stood up and started pacing back and forth across his room, something that Harry had seen Sirius do whenever he was stuck with a particularly difficult decision.

Regulus let out a sigh as a confident look appeared on his face. He squared his shoulders and grabbed the traveling cloak that was thrown over the side of his bed. Casting a quick spell around the room, to make sure that no one else was watching him, he pushed open his window and quickly moved out of it, walking onto the roof below his window. Harry followed without consent, but he was sure he knew where Regulus was heading.

With a spell to make his landing softer, Regulus slid from the roof onto the ground. He stumbled when landing, but was quickly on his feet and running away from the house. He moved through the darkened streets unnoticed by the few occupants that were outside. Finally he reached an old alley way, out of the view of his house and he quickly apparated, even though he was underage. No one would think anything about it in the Ministry though, it wasn't uncommon for the legal Blacks to come and go from that spot.

He appeared in Hogsmead, and started walking through the small village. Harry knew that Regulus was heading towards Hogwarts, and briefly wondered what time of year it was for the youngest Black to be home, but Dumbledore still at the school.

There were a few other students there, and Harry came to the conclusion that it was Easter break. He involuntarily followed Regulus until he found himself inside Hogwarts, in front of the gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office.

Regulus stared at it with a dull look before he heard a light cough, and whirled around to find himself face to face with Dumbledore.

"I had thought that you returned home for the weekend Mr. Black," Dumbledore said, but from the bright twinkle in his eyes Harry could tell that he had been expecting nothing short of this. "Do come into my office though, I believe you were looking for me?"

"Er…yes sir," Regulus replied hesitantly as he followed Dumbledore up the stairs. Harry grinned at the password, 'Skittles', and followed them.

Once they were seated Regulus said, "I…I haven't been a good wizard sir. I've been doing terrible things, and I want out."

"You regret acquiring that mark on your arm?" Dumbledore said.

"I—you knew?"

"But of course," the old man replied. "But, even though others may call me blind, I still think that there is hope for all those who chose to follow Tom through the darkness."

Regulus didn't ask who Tom was, and Harry wondered if he knew anything about Voldemort's past. "I want to help against him. I need to do something to wash this guilt."

Dumbledore regarded Regulus for a moment before saying, "There is a former student of mine, who I'm sure you've met on occasion, and she is doing research involving Tom's past. I'm sure she could need the help, since she refuses to have any of her friends help her at the moment."

"I'll do anything to help. Who is she?"

"I'll arrange for you to meet her. And if you remember, she was the Head Girl in the year just past."

"Lily Evans?" Regulus asked with surprise. Harry perked up at hearing his mother's name, and frowned when he started fading from the office.

_**Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw**_

Harry opened his eyes again and felt déjà vu flood into him. He knew where he was, but why he was here he had no idea. It was the cave where Voldemort had placed his horcrux, the place that was the beginning of Dumbledore's end. He heard footsteps coming towards him, and turned to see who it was. Shock ran through his body when he recognized his mother and Regulus Black walking towards the cave.

Putting two and two together, Harry realized that Regulus must have gone to Lily, who accepted his offer of help (possibly thanks to some coaxing from Dumbledore). From Regulus' mention of the cave, and his own mother's research on the topic of Voldemort, she must have figured out where the horcrux was.

"It's in here," Lily said as she walked up close to the edge of the cave. She hadn't dried herself off, but chose to save her energy for something more life threatening than wet clothes.

Regulus didn't even think of drying himself off either as he walked up beside Lily. His grey eyes looked at the stone wall with doubt as he said, "Here?"

"Yes," she said slowly while staring at the wall. "I can feel the magical energy behind the door. I don't know how to get it open though."

Regulus was quite for a moment before he winced and said, "The Dark Lord was very partial to using blood in almost everything he did."

She nodded and said, "I suppose a blood offering would be right up his alley." She held out her hand and whispered a spell, causing a slit to appear on her hand. Regulus watched as her blood slowly spilled out of her hand and onto the rock as she set her hand against it.

Harry watched as a familiar silver outline appeared in an arch form, and the rock inside of it vanished. It was the same thing that had happened between with him and Dumbledore. He noted that, even though this was taking place about twenty years prior to Harry's visit, the cave still held the creepy darkness that it did when he stepped inside.

Lily and Regulus walked through the cold, dark tunnels, both with calm faces in place.

"So tell me Lily, why are you trying to find these things? The item that the Dark Lord hid?"

"I want him dead," Lily whispered with an icy tone. "I am muggle born, as you know, but I know, not to sound too arrogant or anything, that I am powerful, and a good witch. People looked at my applications to things with distaste because I was muggleborn, and that fault falls on Voldemort. No one wants to hire a target during these dark times. If he's gone, then that might eventually stop."

"And how does finding this object get rid of him?"

"I think," she said coolly. "That if we find these he will become more human then he has been for years."

They continued walking until they reached the edge of the smooth, black lake.

"I assume what you're looking for is out there?" Regulus said while nodding his head towards the green glow coming from the middle of the lake. "But how do you plan on getting us over there?"

Lily concentrated as she walked around the room. Now that Harry could feel magic as well he reached out and quickly found the chain. It would have taken him longer if he didn't know where to look, but he had no doubt that his mother would find it. A few moments later she proved him right as she grasped mid air and the chain appeared.

"Help me pull this," she whispered to him. Regulus grabbed the edge of the chain and both pulled the tiny boat out of the water.

"How are we both going to fit in that?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Neither of us are that big," Lily replied. "I imagine that it was made for one person, but I think we can both fit."

It looked like an uncomfortable squeeze, but both of them managed to fit into the boat. It slowly started moving across the water, and it wasn't long before Harry heard Lily gasp in shock.

Regulus looked over the side of the boat carefully before saying, "Inferi. He's been making many of his followers use them recently. They fear light and warmth, so fire is ideal to use against them."

"Disgusting," Lily growled as she turned away from the water. Soon they reached the edge of the small island, both cautiously dismounting the boat.

Lily quickly walked towards the center of the tiny island, staring into the cauldron before her. Her own emerald green eyes mirrored the color of the familiar potion, and Harry felt his stomach twist uncomfortably. One of them was going to have to drink that.

Regulus reached into his pocket, pulling out the fake locket that Lily had told him to bring. He was about to shove a piece of paper in it when Lily stopped him and said, "Let me read that."

He passed it to her, and she quickly read it over before removing his full name from the bottom. "What's your middle name Regulus?"

"Arcturus, why?"

She tapped the paper and Harry watched as the initials R.A.B appeared on the paper where his name had been. She folded it and placed the piece of paper into the locket before snapping it shut. Catching his confused look she said, "It might throw him off for a bit. So he won't come after you right away."

Turning away from him she reached towards the potion, but her hand stopped above it like Harry's had. "I can't touch it."

Wincing slightly Regulus said, "The Dark Lord would have wanted to see what kind of person could have made it this far past his traps. I bet one of us has to drink that."

Lily conjured a glass and dipped it into the potion, slightly surprised when it sunk into the liquid.

They shared a look and she said, "I'm lighter then you are, so I'll drink this. If something happens to me you can get me out of here quicker then I could get you out. Just remember, the second I'm done drinking, ignore what's going on with me, switch the lockets, and then see if I'm alright, got it?"

"I don't—"

"Got it?"

Regulus stared at her, hesitantly nodding. Harry watched with wide eyes as his mother took a drink of the disgusting potion. He wanted to call out to her, to tell her not to do it, but he couldn't. His vision rippled again and he knew that he was being pulled out of this particularly memory. Seeing the outcome wasn't important, because he knew Lily and Regulus would both survive to remove the horcrux.

_**Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw**_

This time Harry stumbled and fell to the floor as he entered the new vision. Growling angrily to himself he stood up, his eyes looking around the room curiously. He was in a large bedroom, a girl's from the looks of it.

Hearing whispers behind him, he quickly turned around and found himself staring at a group of young women. He recognized his mother right away, and looked at the younger version of Alyssa with surprise, he had been right; she was a beautiful woman before tragedy struck her. Turning his attention to the other girls he saw one with fiery red hair, and knew that she must have been Sarah Prewett, from her likeness to Mrs. Weasley. The last one was a serious looking girl with long bronze colored hair and sapphire blue eyes. That must have been his aunt, Karmen.

Lily cleared her throat before whispering in a low tone, "I need to talk to you guys about something."

"Why are you whispering?" Alyssa asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"You know as well as I do, Aly, that the walls have ears, and sometimes even eyes," Lily replied quickly. "Now I don't know how to talk about this but…well…"

"Does this have to do with my bother?" Karmen said in a joking voice.

"No, this is serious business. I'll complain about him later, but onto more important things for right now. Can you know something, and never repeat it again?"

The three girls around her exchanged nervous looks before Sarah said, "I'll take the secret to the grave with me."

"Potters stick with their friends," Karmen said. "And never rat one another out."

"You don't have to worry about me Lils," Alyssa said with a grin. "I'll probably forget anyways.

"Alright. Aly, Sar, Karmy…I need your help with something. James can't know, no one else can. I've got help on the outside, but it's not enough."

"What are you talking about?" Sarah asked slowly.

Lily pushed her dark red hair out of her eyes and said, "What if I told you, that I knew the key to defeating Voldemort?"

Alyssa, Sarah and Karmen all leaned towards her eagerly. All were willing to do their part to help destroy Voldemort, despite the danger that they knew they would be in.

_**Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw**_

The transition from one memory to the other was quite smooth and quick this time. Harry hadn't even realized he wasn't in the same one until he realized that he was in a new place. He blinked in surprise when a woman shot past him, sprinting down the cobblestone street. There were beads of sweat on her face, which was etched with a horrified look.

Terror flooded through Harry when he realized that they were in Little Hangleton. He looked towards the Riddle house, and stepped away from it. He felt a shiver go up his spine at the sight of the house and the bad memories that went with it.

A sob broke his attention away from the house over to the person that ran by him. She had fallen to her knees and was crying. Harry didn't recognize her at first, but when kneeling down in front of her he realized that it was Karmen.

She was beat up, and there were scratches and cuts all over her. It took Harry a moment to realize that there was a mark in her arm that looked like it had come from something scratching her violently. His mind flashed back to the dead people in the house, and he shuddered.

"Are you alright dear?"

Harry looked up and his mouth opened from surprise at the sight of the old woman who had stopped himself, Ron and Hermione from going up to the Riddle house.

"That house is evil," Karmen whispered, looking up at her with her bloodshot, sapphire blue eyes. "Inside it…it's evil."

"I know," the woman said. The woman studied Karmen before drawing a wand out of her pocket. She whispered a healing spell and Karmen's deepest injuries were quickly healed. "You shouldn't be here. Dumbledore told me to stay here, to tell him if anyone entered the house, but I never expected to find such a nice young lady coming out of that dreadful place."

"You know Professor Dumbledore?"

"Ahh, so you're one of his. I knew you were magic, your wand is showing (she nodded towards Karmen's robes). Now honey, what were you doing in there?"

"I can't tell you that," Karmen said as she managed to stand up and take a few steps back from the old lady.

"I have to tell Albus that you were here."

"You're in the Order, aren't you? Please, don't tell him. This is confidential, but it's important."

"I'm sorry dear," the woman said with a sigh.

Karmen stared at her for a moment before quickly pulling out her wand and whispering, "_Obliviate persona_." The woman had a dazed look on her face when the spell hit her, and Karmen quickly escaped from her sight.

Harry winced; no wonder that woman seemed paranoid when he had met her. He knew the spell Karmen had used; it was one that would make the person forget who they had seen. Harry watched Karmen sprint away, and it was for the first time that he noticed, clasped in her left hand and hidden by her robes, was a golden cup. He assumed that Karmen was going towards her Gringotts' vault to hide it for the time being, not knowing that it would be the cup's resting place for years to come.

_**Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw**_

Harry heard a door slam behind him, and jumped as Sarah Prewett stormed past him. She growled angrily as she slumped onto her bed. She winced slightly when she heard a soft whimper from the other side of the room. She quickly jumped up and moved over to a small cot in the corner. It was only after that Harry remembered the story of how Sarah had a baby who had vanished from sight once his mother had died.

Sarah retreated back to her bed with the tiny baby in her arms. She sat, rocking the baby back and forth for a moment before feeding him. Harry watched as she burped the boy, and hummed lightly as she reached over and pulled a random book from the bookcase.

She started to read silently, until the baby (who was starting to fall asleep), moved and let out a tiny grunt. A small grin appeared on her face as she said, "Do you want mommy to read to you baby? Well ok, let's see…hmmm…this story is a little creepy, but don't worry, mommy will always protect you so you never had to be scared, ok? This story is called The Legend of the Raven Lady. Along time ago, a woman lived in a very peaceful and happy city. The villagers all loved to listen to her play her flute, as it was known as the most beautiful of sounds that they had ever heard. One day, the Snake Man came, and threatened to harm the village if the Raven Lady did not help him. She refused, and banished him, placing a spell over the city to protect it from the Snake Man. It was said that, without the spell, the Snake Man would bring his beast from his Secret Chamber to destroy all those who lived in the village. After the Raven Lady passed away people began to fear that the Snake Man would return, but their Lady had thought ahead about this. She placed a protection spell inside the flute that she used to play for the townsmen. As long as the flute remained within the village barriers, they would be protected from the Snake Man and his beast from the Secret Chamber…"

Sarah stopped reading, a surprised look appearing on her face. She carefully arranged her son in her arms so that he was well protected, and loosely held the book in her other hand. She walked out to the kitchen and set him in a playpen.

After making sure her son was comfortable Sarah bounded across the room and grabbed a mirror out of her hand bag.

"Alyssa Bones," she whispered to the mirror, and a second later the mirror flashed. Harry jumped in surprise when Sarah's reflection vanished and instead Alyssa was staring back at her.

"What's wrong? Is something wrong with Jason?"

"No, he's fine," Sarah said while glancing back at the playpen. "You have to get over here Aly. I think…I think I just realized something very important! I know Lily is with James all weekend, so I can't tell her about this."

"Alright," Alyssa said as her reflection disappeared. Sarah set the mirror down and, with a flick of her wand, made her living room a little more presentable.

A few moments later, Alyssa showed up. Before the blond woman could even begin to speak Sarah said, "I think I know where one of the horcrux are!"

"What?"

"I was reading a story to Jason," Sarah replied quickly. "And…"

Harry couldn't hear the rest of what Sarah said, as a shrieking sound filled his ears. He covered them, and closed his eyes tightly from the headache the sound had given him.

When he opened his eyes again he found himself in a much different scene…and he knew that everything that his mother had been working on was about to backfire and fall…

**_To Be Continued…_**

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

I know you're all wondering the importance of this, and why the hell am I writing this. In all honesty I don't gave a clue WHY I'm writing these chapters. This is my second time around writing them. The first time I just wrote in summary from only Harry's point of view, and I hated it. Then I left the chapters for awhile before finally writing them out completely like they are now. It was the only way the story worked for me. The next chapter was originally supposed to be with this one, but this turned out really long as it is, so I figured, for easy reading purposes, might as well split them up. The other half won't be up for a few though, because I'm not COMPLETELY happy with it yet. There are some things I'm going to change first.

Now there are a few things I want to point out from reviews:

-I never thought about it but yeah, it does seem like wiccan, which is funny because originally I was going to make that branch of magic an important part in the story but decided to cut it out.

-Everyone uses blood in their rituals, but I decided to go with water instead because if you look at blood as being the lifeline of a person, well water is the lifeline of everything.

-Why's the ritual hard to believe? They can use time turners to go into the past by hours, so why not have a ritual to simply see years into the past.

-Yes everything is coming together now

So thank you to everyone who reviewed! Harry Potter Girll, Freedomstar, pupdawg66, shadow uzumaki, JDZ, Demonically Angelic Neko88, dragoon0726, and holimontski.

Also to pupdawg66 (not pupAdawg66) sorry for getting your name wrong so much! You review like every chapter and I didn't notice that I was spelling it wrong. It's pretty embarrassing…

_**Krystal Lily Potter **_


	23. Chain Reactions: The Fall

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Twenty Two:_** Chain Reaction – The Fall  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

Here's the second half. This half is very disturbing, as I just watched several horror movies in the past couple days, including Saw 3. That statement in itself should explain everything.

* * *

_**Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw**_

Yells of pain filled Harry's senses, and he opened his eyes to see a dark cave. He wasn't in just any cave though; he was back in the one where the horcrux had been found.

The yells grew louder, and Harry couldn't stay still any longer. He ran down the cave and found himself staring at a gruesome sight: Lord Voldemort was standing over the twitchy body of Regulus Black.

"You thought that putting your initials in a fake locket would stop me from figuring out who took my horcrux boy?" Voldemort asked angrily. Harry had never seen the dark wizard so angry before, and it was a most frightening sight to behold. "Where is my locket boy?"

"I'm not telling you," Regulus growled, and with a pathetic whimper, he was thrown into the water. He splashed and yelled as the inferi in the water began to attack him, but he was quickly levitated out of the water and thrown at the cave wall.

Harry winced as he heard the tell tale sign of bones breaking. Voldemort stormed over to the youngest Black and yelled, "You really thought I wouldn't know who R.A.B was, you pathetic boy? What was your purpose for leaving a letter behind? Although, I am curious how you beat my wards. Was there someone else with you at the time?"

"No," Regulus wheezed out.

"How did you guess where it was? How did you know exactly what it was?"

"I just did," Regulus said with a gasp. He screamed again as a more powerful cruciatus curse was thrown at him.

"Who's in charge boy?"

"No one."

"You lie."

Regulus yelled in pain as Voldemort forcefully pushed himself into his mind. He looked through it, but there was no memory of a person in charge. There was definitely a person, that much Voldemort found out for sure, but the identity of the person was wiped from Regulus' mind long ago.

"You're trying to distract me from the one in charge," Voldemort hissed. "But…what's this? Two of my other horcrux have been found? Hmm…well I will have to silence those two girls before they tell the wrong person. Let's see here (Regulus tried to block his mind from Voldemort, but it was no use). Ahh, Karmen Potter and Sarah Prewett. Pity, both of them are fine looking Purebloods. Well I must dispose of them before too much damage is done. I see that the memory of the location of my horcrux has been destroyed as well. So be it then."

Harry was startled at this revelation. He knew for a fact that the locket had been left in Grimmauld Place, and that his mother was obviously the one in charge. He thought back to the spell Vera had done on his father before, so James wouldn't remember doing the memory ritual. He guessed that either Lily or Vera had used the spell on Regulus. Unfortunately, it appeared that newer information still remained fresh in the mind of the youngest Black.

"I will tell my Death Eaters that you were killed by one of the low life ones. It will surely disgrace your family," Voldemort said. "But your true fate will remain unknown."

Harry gasped and winced when he saw the body of Regulus Black fly into the inferi filled water again. He managed to get to the surface for a moment, yelling in terror and pain, but it did him no good, no one could hear him.

Regulus was pulled to the bottom, and soon Harry couldn't see the ripples from him trying to fight his way to the surface. Harry thought he was going to be sick when the image rippled away, only to be replaced by another one.

_**Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw**_

Sarah Prewett ran as fast as she could. Her son, Jason, was held tightly in her arms as she twisted in and out of the trees, in hopes of escaping the monster chasing her.

Suddenly she stumbled over her feet and fell to the ground. A light scream escaped her lips as she attempted to get up again, hoping that her attacker wouldn't notice her in the dark forest, but it was too late. Little Jason let out an ear splitting cry.

Without trying to silence her son, she grabbed a hold of the tree next to her and pulled herself up, but a moment later she fell to the ground again, this time for violently.

She let out a piercing scream as she was suddenly drug backwards. Harry couldn't see who it was, but there was a man holding onto her ankle and dragging her.

She was suddenly thrown into the middle of a clearing, and Harry could finally see who it was dragging her. His blood ran cold when he saw that it was Fenrir Greyback.

Sarah cradled her screaming baby close to her chest, and whimpered when Greyback took a step towards her. She pushed herself away from him, not wanting him too close to her child.

Greyback stared at her, his eyes lingering on the baby before he said, "The Dark Lord wants you dead. Do you know why…Sarah Prewett is it?"

Sarah didn't answer him. She continued to glare at him, daring him to come closer to her as her grip tightened on Jason.

"I requested this mission, you know why Sarah? I was always interested to meet a woman who dated a werewolf knowingly. What was his name? Lupin? Yes I remember him; I bit him when he was only seven. His father was shocked to see what had happened to his only son. Served him right."

"Don't come near me," she growled angrily as she managed to get to her feet again, carefully walking backwards.

Greyback continued to stare at the baby and said, "Is that the werewolf's kid?"

"What?" Sarah was thrown off by that question. A nervous look appeared on her face, she knew that Remus' father had been the one to track, and name Greyback with the crime of harming children and purposely changing them into werewolves, and in revenge he had turned Remus into one.

"No, he's not," she replied. It was true that she had dated Lupin in Hogwarts, and she remained good friends with him, but the child was honestly not his.

"You know why I staged this for tonight? I think you do Sarah. You spent enough time with Lupin to know what happens once a month."

Sarah whimpered and started backing away from him again.

"The Dark Lord wants you dead," Greyback said, moving towards her. "I don't know why, and I don't care. You know though, I think I'll keep the kid. Make him one of my own. He'll grow to be a nice, strong werewolf."

"Leave him alone you bastard," Sarah growled angrily.

"Of course you won't be around to see it, pity," Greyback said. His voice was starting to change, becoming lower.

Harry's eyes snapped to the sky, as did Sarah's, and he realized at the same time as she did, that Fenrir was changing into a werewolf. The full moon was beginning to appear in the sky.

As the monstrous man bent over from pain Sarah turned on her heel and ran. She was running much faster then before, and with more desperation.

A loud howl was heard from behind her a few moments later, and she knew that Greyback was on her trail. Her thoughts weren't on herself at the moment though; she was trying to get her baby out of the forest.

She managed to control her scream as the ground suddenly vanished into a steep hill, and she stumbled down it. Fortunately she was able to steady herself. She could hear the running of a large animal not far off and knew that there was no chance of her escaping now.

"Please let this work," she muttered as she grabbed a rock off of the ground. "_Portus_."

Harry turned quickly and watched as Greyback the werewolf jumped out of the trees. He snapped his teeth viciously and lunged at the woman and her baby.

Sarah let out a loud scream, as did the baby, where Greyback's teeth landed in the child's tiny arm. Sarah grabbed the closest thing to her, a very sharp branch, and slashed the side of the werewolf's face. Harry recognized the cut as a scar he had seen when Greyback was in Hogwarts. Harry hadn't thought anything of it before, why would he? Remus told him that werewolves often attacked themselves to make sure that they wouldn't harm people. It appeared that Sarah had left a scar on the werewolf forever.

"I love you baby," she whispered to the infant as she set him on the ground and placed the Portkey on him. A second later the bleeding child vanished. Sarah had never been good with making Portkeys, and wasn't able to make one strong enough to move both her and her son.

It was a foolish thing to try and apparate with an infant, as they would often end up dying in the process, but now that she son was away from the werewolf, she could do that on her own.

She never got the chance though. Greyback lunged at her again, this time his teeth sunk into her leg. Using all of his strength he threw her back into the woods.

Harry didn't follow the werewolf as he ran after Sarah. For a moment Harry heard her scream, when it suddenly stopped.

He shook his head rapidly, trying to get what he was seeing out of his mind. Everything began to change again. Harry wished that he hadn't been so damn curious about how his mother and her friends all fit together in the search for the horcrux.

_**Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw**_

Lily Evans took a drink of her Butterbeer and shifted it from one hand to the other. Tears streaked down her face, but her boyfriend, James Potter, didn't say anything. He simply sat beside her, his arm around her shoulder.

Harry stared at his parents, this was the youngest he had ever seen them (pictures included) when they had been getting along.

A few moments later Sirius appeared and sat down across from them, an equally sad look on his face. Soon Alyssa appeared next to him. Still, no one said anything.

Harry looked over as Remus walked towards the table and sat on the fifth chair. His leaned onto the table and buried his face into his hands.

"Moony," Sirius said, but he couldn't think of anything to say.

"That bastard," Remus hissed suddenly. "Greyback! I'll murder him! I swear to Merlin!"

Lily let out a small sob and James said, "We know mate. We're not going to hold you back."

"First," Remus said angrily. "First he attacks random children, and then my dad catches him so he attacks me for revenge. Now he attacks Sarah for no reason at all! I bet he did it because she dated me before hand. He has a history of taking violent interest in normal witches and wizards who interact with werewolves!"

"Calm down Remus," the soft voice of Vera Evans said as she appeared and sat down in the last seat. "There's nothing you could do at the time. We will get back at him, I promise you."

"Where's my sister?" James muttered suddenly.

"She said she had to do something today, but I'm not sure what," Alyssa replied.

Lily suddenly stood up and said, "I can't be in here. I need some air."

She moved past James and started going to the door when he grabbed her arm and said, "I'll come with you."

"No, no you can stay here," she said in almost a panicky voice.

James was about to argue when Vera stood back up and said, "Come on sis, lets go and you can calm down. No offence James, but I can take care of this."

James nodded to her and let go of Lily's arm. Harry followed the two sisters as they walked outside.

"Lily, I have bad news," Vera said suddenly.

"I can't take anymore bad news Vera," Lily said with a sob. "I'm the reason that Regulus and Sarah are both dead. You know it, and I know it. If I hadn't asked them for help…"

"Then Voldemort would still have all the pieces of his soul," Vera hissed angrily and quietly. "Listen to me Lily it's not your fault. They knew what they were getting into."

"You have to admit, that the horcrux probably are the reason they're dead though."

"I—fine. Yes I do think that Voldemort realized that several pieces of his soul have gone missing, and he's probably out for revenge. But Lily, that's the bad news."

"What is?"

"You know how I mentioned I have a contact inside the Death Eaters?" Vera whispered so that Lily had to lean close to her sister to hear.

"Yes?"

"He said that Voldemort intercepted an encrypted letter from Aly to you. He managed to find out what it said and…Lily…he knows you're the one who knows everything."

Lily's eyes looked at her sister, startled and fearful at the same time.

"You have to hide," Vera said.

"I can't hide, not when I know that everyone else I care about will die."

The two didn't say much as they continued walking through Diagon Alley.

"Lily—" Vera started but jumped when a scream was heard.

Harry looked up to see people running towards them, and his heart sank when he saw what was right behind them: Death Eaters.

One Death Eater looked towards Lily, and made a motion with his arm. Vera grabbed her sister's arm and started dragging her away from the scene.

"Shit, shit," Vera kept whispering to herself. "Lily, I need you to get to muggle London, run and hide. If there was ever anything that you were going to do for me, it's that. You saw what that Death Eater did, they're after you."

"This is ridiculous! You just tell me now that he knows, and they're already after me?" Lily growled angrily.

"Lily, I knew for a while, I couldn't get a hold of you."

Lily was about to reply when the wall of a building a few feet away from them was hit with a spell and exploded. Lily screamed and Vera jumped backwards.

"Say goodnight mudblood," an unknown Death Eater whispered as Lily faced him. "_Avada Kedavra_."

Lily let out a scream, but not because of the spell coming at her, but because her sister had thrown herself between the curse and Lily.

"Vera!" she screamed as her sister slumped down to the ground. "No! Vera!"

Too late the Aurors were on the scene. Harry didn't care how the battle turned out though, all he could see was his sobbing mother holding her sister's head in her lap and he knew that he wasn't the only one who had felt guilty over the deaths of innocent people. His mother had gone through the exact same thing.

_**Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw**_

At first Harry just wanted to stop watching, to try and get his mind to go back into his body, but it seemed that there was still more he had to see. It appeared that more then just his sense of sight and sound were working for these visions, as a foul smell entered his nostrils.

He gulped and blinked with disgust. When he did, he wished that he had left his eyes closed. He backed up, into a rocky wall, and started to shake terribly. He was back in the torture chamber.

There was a groan, and he quickly looked over and gasped in horror. Karmen Potter was slowly waking up, only to find herself tied down on an old wooden table by wire.

"No," Harry whispered. "No, please I don't want to see this, no."

The door opened, just like when he had been the one bound down to the table, and Thing appeared in the room. Harry was surprised by Thing's appearance; she appeared completely normal and was actually a decent looking woman.

"Who are you?" Karmen said as she gasped in pain. "Let me go."

Thing stared at her with amusement and turned as Marlow Jibson entered the room. He stared at Karmen for a moment before saying, "You were here some time ago, weren't you Miss Potter? You stole something of the Dark Lord's, and he isn't very happy. He's particularly angry with me, as it's my job to insure the safety of the item that was here. I failed thanks to you."

Karmen glared at him and said, "Glad I could help."

Jibson stared at her for a moment and said, "It's a shame what I have to do with you. You're a very beautiful woman. Perhaps…yes…there's time." He turned to Thing and said, "Numbers nineteen through thirty nine."

Harry didn't know what that meant, but he knew it couldn't be good. He watched as Jibson walked over to the table and stared at Karmen. Not for the first time, disgust and rage appeared in Harry as he watched Jibson's hand go up and underneath Karmen's robes, and he knew exactly what was going to happen.

He couldn't watch this; he couldn't just stand there and watch this happen to his family member. Thing appeared in the room again, carrying several trays. Harry watched as she took the cloth off of them and saw rusty knives. He kept his attention on Thing as she went to work placing them out, and mixing several vivid potions together. Harry noticed, as she dumped a particularly bright green one into the mix, that it appeared to be the same one that the locket had been submerged in.

Why couldn't the memory just end? He was trying to focus on the potion, but he could hear his aunt's screams of pain.

Suddenly Jibson appeared in his vision, looking very self-satisfied, and his anger began to grow more and more. Harry didn't notice that, once again, a blue glow was beginning to appear around him, nor did he hear a shocked gasp come from Karmen.

All of the bottles around him exploded, and Jibson and Thing turned around. For a moment Harry thought that they were staring right at him with shocked eyes. There was an explosion behind Jibson, and Harry imagined himself throwing the man, and sure enough Jibson went flying into the splintery bookshelf. Thing let out a scream as she was shoved backwards. She stumbled and fell to the floor, unfortunately for her the potion fell over onto her and she let out a scream of anguish.

Behind him he heard something fall. He turned around and saw that the wires that had held Karmen down snapped and she stumbled weakly to the floor. Harry didn't move towards her though, he knew he wasn't causing any of this.

Surprise went through him as emerald met sapphire as she looked directly into his eyes, and he knew, for a moment, despite what the book said, that Karmen could see him.

She didn't waste much time on him though, as he faded from her vision. Whatever had saved her wasn't there anymore. Jibson had done terrible things to her, and although he had stabbed her a few places with a knife, and had hacked his initials into her, and abused her in a way no one had before, she wasn't thinking about any of that. The only thought of her mind was to get to warn Lily that Voldemort knew his horcrux were missing.

Karmen shot through the mass amount of dead bodies coming towards her. But she managed to get by them and through a passage way.

Harry saw it before she did, but he couldn't stop her now, no matter how much he tried. She had run right into a group of Death Eaters. Karmen stumbled to a stop, a terrified look on her face.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Harry knew that voice anywhere, it was impossible not to recognize Lucius Malfoy, even when his face was hidden by a mask and he was years younger.

"Malfoy," Karmen spat. Making a split second decision she used a silent spell that caused the carpet they were standing on to pull from under their feet.

She ran over them and out the door, but she was barely down the front lawn when they were on her tail again.

Harry noticed that the old woman down the road looked out her window before quickly vanishing.

"_Crucio_!" Lucius yelled. Karmen let out a scream as the spell wracked her body.

She tried to move away, but the pain was too great. Her body twitched as she was released.

"_Sectumsempra_." Harry felt his heart stop when he saw who had cast that spell. Karmen's eyes widened in shock as she whispered, "Peter…how could you?" Cuts and slashes appeared all over her body as she said that.

"You're all weak," Peter mumbled. "All of you."

Karmen Potter proved to be a fighter through and through. She quickly pointed her wand at the men, and all of them flew backwards. With what little energy she had left she darted down the road and did not stop.

She was around the corner, past the woman's house and fell again, this time from exhaustion. Harry knelt down next to her and tried to touch her to see if he could help, but his hand went through her shoulder. Tears built up in his eyes, but his attention was soon turned to the approaching footsteps.

Karmen looked in that direction with a terrified look of acceptance on her face. It was obvious she didn't have the strength to continue on.

Much to her (and Harry's) surprise, the Death Eater knelt down next to her and pulled off his hood.

"Snape," she muttered while staring at him.

For the first time in his life Harry saw pity on Snape's face. There was a sad look of pain on him as he said, "I don't think…I can't…"

"I'm dying," she said. "You don't need to tell me, I know. No spell or potion can stop it." Karmen groaned in pain again and clenched her eyes tightly. Her hand suddenly gripped tightly onto Snape's arm as she said, "Kill me."

"What?" Snape asked, startled beyond belief.

"Please Severus, use Avada Kedavra on me. Please. We both know I'm not going to live. Please. If there is a little bit of good in you Severus, please do this for me?"

Young Snape had a look of doubt and confusion on his face. Harry stared from his aunt, to the man who would one day be Dumbledore's murderer.

"_Severus…please…"_

Harry's mind gave off a loud warning as he finally knew why this seemed so familiar to him. He could clearly see the parallels between this situation, and what happened with Dumbledore at Hogwarts. If Karmen was asking Snape to kill her, then, was it possible that Dumbledore had been asking the same instead of for mercy like Harry had originally thought?

Severus pulled out his wand and said, "I'm sorry Karmen, you were always a good person. _Avada Kedavra_."

Harry watched as the spell hit Karmen and she slumped to the ground, but there was no anger in him. She had been in so much pain before, but now there was a peaceful look on her face, despite all the gashes etched into her.

Harry and Snape both jerked around as the woman came into view, and a few moments later Dumbledore did as well. There was a sad look on the man's features, and a terrified look on Snape's.

"Severus," Dumbledore said. "I want you to come with me son. You are not in trouble; you did the right thing for Miss Potter."

Snape cautiously got up and followed Dumbledore away. The old woman threw a blanket over Karmen, and levitated her away.

Harry's vision was starting to blur, but in that haze he saw another memory. This one went quickly, but he saw Alyssa scream and grab a tiny, and still baby, before Sirius showed up. Then everything went black.

_**Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw**_

Ron was startled out of his trance as the water under him suddenly retracted into the ocean, leaving the ground he was standing on bare yet muddy. He looked up in time to see the water by Harry and Hermione vanish as well, causing Harry to fall onto his back, and Hermione to fall onto him.

Harry's eyes snapped open and he choked out salty water. Hermione let out a light scream as she hugged him tightly. Ron ran over to them and helped Harry to his feet as the water returned.

"Bloody hell, what happened?" he asked with shocked eyes.

Harry looked from Ron to Hermione as they got into the sandy shore, and threw up before fainting.

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

A very long and very disturbing chapter, I know. I thought about it forever how I wanted it to go, and still, I couldn't write everything. I had one last scene in the memories, the one where we saw why Alyssa went insane. I wrote it, but I couldn't keep it in. I read it over and, well you all know that Alyssa's daughter died at six months old and…I just couldn't write it. It made me so upset for some reason so I didn't put it in. I still have it if I ever decide to put it in a revised version of this chapter, but you know…

So, now we all know the story about how all the OCs were connected to the horcrux. I thought them out carefully, and I know I didn't have to make James and Lily have anymore sisters or anything, but if you look back in the Scars of Time I used several of the same characters. I actually have an entire AU world of OCs planned out for a story that I never got around to really writing.

One reasons for the aunts though, was that it was hitting closer to home for Harry, that Voldemort had killed all of the family that would have cared about him and not just the money they were offered (Petunia).

Points from reviews:

-I'm not going to show muggles in Hogwarts...yet...  
-Lily didn't know the boat was based on magic, but they could cross because Regulus was in Hogwarts and he was only 16.  
-I'll post what the incantation means next chapter  
-No it's simple like that, Harry's just seeing the past  
-It's magic, Harry won't drown

Thank you to all the people who reviewed! thunder, Freedomstar, Supercushion, Jarno, Demonically Angelic Neko88, pupdawg66, JDZ, TheWhiteTomb, holimontski, Harry Potter Girll.

So tell me what you think, and I know some people will say these chapters were useless, but I think it just wasn't my story without them. And you don't have to say that it's disturbing, I know it is. This is what happens when you cross caffeine with horror movies.  
**_  
Krystal Lily Potter _**


	24. Coming Home

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Twenty Four:_** Coming Home  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

* * *

"What happened to him?"

"He just…fainted."

"He fainted?"

"Yes, he fainted."

Harry let out a groan, and the arguing stopped. He felt a warm hand take his and squeeze it tightly. Slowly he opened his eyes, and found himself staring into the worried face of Hermione Granger. He stared at her for a moment before smiling and saying, "Hey."

"Are you feeling ok mate?" Ron asked from where he was standing beside Hermione.

Harry looked at him while sitting up and said, "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just a little…stressed."

Sirius moved towards the couch where Ron and Hermione had placed his godson and said, "Are you sure? Is there anything you want to tell us?"

Tonks and Remus appeared behind Ron and Hermione, with equal appearances of worry on his face. He couldn't see her, but he knew Alyssa was near by.

"I…we used a spell," Harry said. "One from a book my mother translated. It allowed me to…to see the past."

"A spell to see the past?" Tonks asked slowly. "I didn't think one existed."

Harry nodded and said, "It does, and it was so…odd…beyond disturbing. I don't know how anyone could stand it back then."

"What did you see Harry?" Hermione whispered to him.

Harry looked at her for a moment before saying, "I saw my mum use the exact same spell we did. Her older sister, Vera, read it, and my dad held her under the water. Vera wiped his mind of the ritual though. Then I saw your brother Sirius."

Sirius looked surprised by this, but he didn't ask any questions so Harry continued. "He was looking for a way out of being a Death Eater, so he went to Dumbledore with some information about odd behavior from Voldemort. Dumbledore redirected him to my mother. Regulus and my mum went to get the locket from the cave; I never actually saw them switch lockets, but I did see that Regulus had the fake one. Then I saw my mum tell Alyssa, Karmen and Sarah about the horcrux and…"

Harry trailed off as he heard a slight gasp from Alyssa. He looked back at her, and she was staring at him with captivated blue eyes. There was a look of confusion there, but it almost seemed as if she knew what he was talking about.

"Karmen got a hold of the cup from the Riddle house," he finished. "She was running down the same street, and you know that old lady? (Ron and Hermione nodded) While she was working for Dumbledore, keeping tabs on the Riddle House. Karmen partially erased her memory, that's why she's so paranoid. Then I saw Sarah reading a story to her son, and she realized where Ravenclaw's Flute probably was, but I didn't hear it."

A pained look passed Remus' face at the mention of Sarah and her son. Tonks squeezed his hand tightly before motioning for Harry to continue.

"And then it got worse. I saw them all die. Regulus, Sarah, Vera, and Karmen. Voldemort tortured Regulus himself, asking who was in charge of their whole operation. Regulus didn't give up any names though, but Voldemort dug through his mind and found that Karmen and Sarah knew where two of the horcrux were. Then he—he threw Regulus to the inferi in the cave where the locket was."

Sirius made a sound that strongly reminded Harry of a dog in pain. His eyes were wide in shock as he said, "I thought…they said he was murdered by another run-of-the-mill death eater. That he wasn't important enough to be killed by Voldemort himself."

"Voldemort started the rumor to disgrace his family," Harry said with a disgusted wince. "It was horrible. But it got worse. The next thing I saw was Sarah…and Greyback."

A very wolfish growl came from Remus, and Harry noticed his eyes were a brighter shade of amber then normal. Anger appeared on the normally passive man's face, and Tonks gave him a nervous look.

"Harry," Sirius said slowly. "Please tell me that you didn't actually see him kill her. The actual murder itself."

"No, he threw her behind some trees and I heard her screaming, but it stopped."

"He mutilated her," Remus said with a growl. "They didn't know who's body it was until later on. There were patches of fur left on her robes, and they used those to see the werewolf that did it. They thought, because she and I had a history, that it was me. And her son…they never found Jason."

"Greyback bit him," Harry said. "But Sarah managed to create a small portkey and sent him to safety. I don't know where he went though."

"He's alive?" Tonks said slowly. She received a nod from Harry before saying, "All werewolves are tracked by the ministry. If she transported him to somewhere in Britain, then he'd be registered. We could look at the names of those his age."

Remus seemed to calm a little at this statement, but he still reminded Harry strongly of a wolf ready to pounce on its prey. He turned his eyes to the others and said, "Next it was Vera. She died while protecting my mother in an attack on Diagon Alley. Vera told her that Voldemort knew it was her tracking the horcrux."

"So he knew?" Hermione asked.

"Apparently. The last two I saw were the worst ones. At least I finally know why Dumbledore trusted Snape so much, and it wasn't only because of the prophecy."

This seemed to catch everyone's attention. Hermione's grip on his hand tightened before he continued, "Karmen was captured and taken to the Riddle house. Jibson, that bastard, he tortured her and he raped her! She put up one hell of a fight though. I don't know how I did it, but I managed to use magic in the memory! They could all see me, but only for a moment. She ran, but the Death Eaters caught her. She tried to get away, but they used the cruciatus curse on her, and Wormtail used the Sectumsempra spell on her. She got away again, but she was dying…even I could see it. A Death Eater came up to her, it was Snape. She begged him to kill hear, to let her die peacefully without pain. He reluctantly agreed. Death Eaters would have watched her die slowly, and even I could see that Snape regretted killing her. That's why Dumbledore trusted him so much, because he didn't let her suffer. I assume after that Snape told Dumbledore that Voldemort knew the first of the prophecy."

Silence hung through the air. Everyone looked visibly upset by Harry's tale, the boy-who-lived included in that.

"You said you had one more memory?" Sirius said after a moment.

Harry nodded and said, "It went so fast, it was hard to catch because I was between that…dream world and the real world, but I'm glad though. I tried not to watch and listen. It was in the alley way by Grimmauld Place and –"

There was a loud thump behind the couch, and everyone looked around to see the doll Alyssa carried with her on the floor, the startled looking woman staring directly at him with tear filled eyes. "She tricked me! She lured me there! She killed my baby!"

Alyssa slumped to the floor with tears in her eyes, before saying, "Bellatrix killed her."

Harry turned away and looked at the floor while Hermione sat next to him and Ron beside her. They didn't say anything, nor did Remus or Tonks.

Sirius hesitantly walked towards Alyssa and knelt down in front of her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It wasn't your fault."

Her eyes snapped up to him, more clarity in them then ever before. She sobbed as she said, "I remember…my baby. Oh god, Sarah…Karmen…how could I forget what happened to them! How could I forget? Harry…Harry…I remember…I know…"

Harry got up from the couch and knelt down beside Sirius while saying, "It's alright Aly. I'm sorry I said that, I should have waited to tell that part of the story. Please, don't stress yourself too much."

"Harry," she said and grabbed his hand. Her eyes met his as she shakily said, "Sarah—she told me—the flute, Harry! The flute! The Raven Lady's flute is in the Snake Man's Secret Chamber with his beast."

Harry stared at her blankly. He hadn't mentioned the exact story that Sarah had been reading, but that was what the characters in it were called. He finally realized that she really was starting to remember.

Hermione let out a gasp and said, "The Snake Man's Secret Chamber?"

"Yes."

"Harry! It's brilliant! He hid it in a place where he thought that only he could go, and even better it was right under Dumbledore's nose, but he would never find it!" Hermione exclaimed.

"What?" Ron asked with confusion.

"You were there too Ron. It's painfully obvious what the story was talking about. The Flute of Ravenclaw is in the Chamber of Secrets!"

Everyone looked at her, stunned by the simplicity of the discovery. Now that Harry thought about it, it was painfully obvious that Riddle would have put a horcrux there. He hadn't thought about it because he destroyed the journal in the Chamber, and hadn't even thought that there would be a second on there. Then again, the journal wasn't really placed in there to begin with. Lucius Malfoy had it, and lord knows where it was before that. The Chamber of Secrets was the ultimate hiding place. But Voldemort hadn't predicted that he would give the key to getting in the Chamber to another, years after the flute was hidden.

He looked over at Hermione, who nodded at him. They both glanced at Ron, and it appeared that he knew what they were thinking.

"So it's settled?" Ron asked slowly.

"Looks like it," Harry agreed.

"What are you talking about?" Tonks asked with confusion.

"We're going home," Hermione said after a moment. "We're going back to Hogwarts."

* * *

Rubeus Hagrid sighed as he walked through the halls of Hogwarts, he wasn't used to being cooped up inside, but ever since the wards had fallen around Hogwarts the students weren't allowed outside, not even for a moment. He knew that, like himself, many of the children felt trapped in the place that they had called home for the past seven years for the eldest. He could even see several teachers exhausted and tried of the indoor.

Pomona Sprout was another soul who was against the 'twenty-four hour indoors' system, but she too understood why it was in place. With the permission of McGonagall she had transformed a set of abandoned classrooms into several greenhouses in place of the ones that had been abandoned on the grounds.

Rolanda Hootch was the most vocal about being trapped indoors, as it was frowned upon for even the Professors to step outside in these dark times, unless it was necessary. Being the flying instructor and the referee for the Qudditch matches, her job was completely obsolete now that she could not take the students outdoors. Still, McGonagall asked her to stay to help keep order in the school. The disgruntled Quidditch fanatic finally came to an agreement to start a dueling club, as she was fairly decent at it.

Hagrid shook his head as he walked towards the Great Hall. Being a half-giant and being stuck inside was beginning to take its toll on him. Ever since Dumbledore had died things went from bad to worse very quickly. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw a snowy owl fly down the hall, but that was impossible, the only snowy owl he had seen in Hogwarts was Hedwig, and she'd be with Harry, wherever he was.

He pushed open the doors to the Great Hall, but no one paid him any attention. At the staff table he could see the two previously mentioned professor, Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, Sybil Trelawney, Septima Vector, Batusheda Babbling, Aurora Sinistra, Allana Whiteburn, Worland Whales, and Horace Slughorn sitting, silently watching the students. Poppy Pomfry was no doubt in the hospital wing; Irma Pince could be found in the library, Firenze was probably in his classroom, Professor Binns was no doubt in the staff room and Argus Flitch was probably patrolling the halls for any students causing mischief. His chair was left unattended for the moment, and he almost started making his way into the Great Hall when he froze in mid step. From the corner of his eye he saw a door opening at the end of the hall.

At first he thought it was probably just Flitch coming to check this hallway, but it opened and he heard several voices.

"In and out, it'll be quick."

"Something's going to go wrong."

"Shut up, don't jinx us."

"Why would I jinx us?

"What I—it's a muggle saying!"

"Would you two shut it?!"

Hagrid knew those voices anywhere. He hadn't heard them in months, but he knew who they belonged to without question. He made a strangled yelling sound, causing everyone in the Great Hall to look towards him as he moved towards the door.

He heard several teachers tell the students to sit down as they made their way towards the door of the Great Hall. Hagrid had crossed the hall with only a few steps and found himself looking at a startled face he hadn't seen in months.

"'Arry!" he cried out happily. "Ron! 'Ermione! Itsa bout time ya come 'ome!" He pulled them all into a giant hug, startling the three of them to no end.

"Hagrid!" Ron cried out. "It's good to see you to, but can you let go! I can't breathe right!"

Hagrid let go of them and took turns staring from one to the other with a teary look in his small eyes.

"Hagrid, what's the — Potter?" the surprise in McGonagall's voice was evident, and the whispers from the Great Hall stopped. The rest of the staff filed into the hallway, and Harry very much felt like he was in some kind of zoo where he was the main attraction.

"Er…we had wanted to get in and out of the school without causing much of a fuss," he said lamely. Looking back over his shoulder Harry scowled and said, "You guys are wimps! Get out here!'

Reluctantly Sirius, Tonks, Remus and a shaky Alyssa walked into the room, all with guilty looks on their faces.

McGonagall's face turned pink as she said slowly, "You three knew where Potter and his friends were all along?"

"Well," Sirius said hesitantly. "Since Halloween."

McGonagall was about to say something else when he face went pale. For the first time she had just noticed Alyssa, and she wasn't the only one. The professors that had known her all started whispering, they had thought she was dead.

"Miss. Bones?"

Alyssa's eyes snapped from the floor, up to the stern woman's with a terrified expression. She didn't say anything, but cowered behind Sirius instead. After her memories had finally returned to her, the silliness that she had portrayed vanished, and was replaced with a constant fear of everything around her.

McGonagall sighed before saying, "You seven come to my office!"

They followed the Headmistress past the open doors to the Great Hall, allowing everyone inside to see them. The whispers broke out once again and a very startled Susan Bones gasped as she saw a scruffier looking version of the aunt who she assumed was dead, walk by.

* * *

Minerva McGonagall stared at the seven people in her office. Three of them with emotionless faces, three with guilty appearances, and one that twitched from fear ever few seconds. It was certainly a sight to see. She glanced back at the portrait of Dumbledore, but it was currently empty. He had probably gone off to speak to the Fat Lady or one of the other portraits.

"Mr. Potter (He sat up straight at his name.), I assume you are the ring leader in whatever it is that you've been doing," she started while slowly turning back to stare at them. "And I assume it has something to do with whatever you and Albus were doing before his passing?"

"Yes Professor," Harry replied. "We've been doing something extremely important, and extremely dangerous."

"And you have avoided the wizarding world in the process, except for when the attack on Hogsmead happened. Were you informed of that?"

Harry realized where this was going. She was trying to see if they had been spying on the Death Eaters. There were no threatening tones to her voice, only pure curiosity.

"It was a dream, like the one of Arthur Weasley being bit by a snake. I saw the wards falling as well, and I can promise you that it's going to get worse."

Nodding her head, but not surprised in the least, she continued, "I asked you at the end of last year to tell me what exactly you did with Albus. I suppose that your choice of silence hasn't changed any, has it?"

Harry looked uncomfortable at the question, he had swore to Dumbledore that he would only tell Ron and Hermione, yet Sirius, Remus, Tonks and Alyssa already knew, and now he desperately wanted to tell McGonagall. He didn't want to go back against his word when he knew very well that there was a chance that Dumbledore was just outside of the frame of his portrait.

Hermione came to the rescue as she reached into her bag and said, "We were looking for this."

McGonagall's mouth dropped slightly as she saw the Chalice of Hufflepuff. It had been missing ever since the murder of Hephzibah Smith. She reached out to touch it but, at Harry's quick nudge, Hermione quickly put it away. The brown haired girl quickly reached over to Harry, pulling out the chain that was hidden beneath his shirt. On the end of it was a golden locket, the Locket of Slytherin.

"Goodness! Where did you find those?" she exclaimed when Harry put the locket back beneath his shirt.

"You don't want to know the trouble we went through to get those," Ron muttered. "Or at least to find out where they were."

Harry shoved Ron slightly and said, "You haven't been the one injured to unconsciousness yet, have you?"

"That's because luck likes me, while you're just fates unlucky b—" Tonks whacked him on the back of the dead before he could finish his sentence.

Harry didn't take any offense to his friend's comment; he simply shook his head and gave Ron a hopeless look.

"These," Harry said. "Are very important. These are the key to making Voldemort mortal again." There, he had made his decision to tell McGonagall the truth. It was the best thing that they could do at the moment.

McGonagall stared from one person to the other before saying, "Will someone explain?"

"A horcrux," Tonks said while leaning forward slightly. "Voldemort split his soul in seven…sorry…six pieces. Dumbledore found one of them, and located where the locket was. Unfortunately the real horcrux had been removed years before by Regulus Black and Lily Potter."

McGonagall knew what a horcrux was. She had heard whispered stories about them in her younger adult years. She also knew that, if Voldemort had six of them, then the extreme alteration in his looks from when she had known him as Tom Riddle in school were explained, as was how he survived that night sixteen years ago when he attacked the Potters.

"These items are horcruxes?"

"Yes," Remus answered.

"How many more are there left to find?"

"The first one found, and destroyed, was Tom Riddle's journal, which I destroyed in second year. Then Dumbledore found the Gaunt family ring and destroyed that. We have the cup and the locket here, so there are two left aside from Voldemort himself. The flute of Ravenclaw, which we believe is hidden in the school, and Voldemort's snake, Nagini…" Harry trailed off, an odd look on his face.

"Harry?" Sirius said while nudging his godson.

"Sorry, I was just thinking. Dumbledore was so sure that Nagini was a horcrux. Voldemort keeps her very close, and he had more control over her then a parselmouth should, at least that's what he told me. But something else Dumbledore said has been making me wonder if that's true…"

"What?" Hermione asked, after he had gone silent.

"Back in second year, after the Chamber of Secrets, he told me that Voldemort unknowingly, and accidentally, put a part of himself inside of me. We've already come to the conclusion that it wasn't only my mother's sacrifice that allowed me to live, although that's what triggered the power. What if I am the last horcrux? It would explain our bond and how I was even able to feel when he was very happy or angry," Harry said with worry etched on his face.

"I do not believe that is the case Mr. Potter," McGonagall said. "Albus (she motioned to the portrait) has taken to singing songs recently about the snake with two souls. It appears he still believes that Nagini is the horcrux."

"But what if he was mistaken?"

Hermione turned slightly and face him with a glare before saying, "Harry, you are not a horcrux. If you were Voldemort would have much more control over you. If you had even a piece of someone else's soul in you I'd be willing to bet that you wouldn't be…well…you."

"She's right Harry," Remus said suddenly. "I really don't think the horcrux is inside of you."

"It is really dark magic," Sirius agreed. "Incredibly hard to do, as you've seen from the book you got at Grimmauld place. It's also a very dark ritual involving blood and flesh, but when would Moldy-Shorts have had the time to do that? It doesn't seem to be something that could happen by accident."

"I believe, Mr. Potter," McGonagall started. "That their assessment is correct. I too have heard of a horcrux before, and it is simply too difficult to do for one to be made by accident. As for your connection to Voldemort, it might have something to do with power."

"Power, professor?" Ron asked.

"All beings, magical, muggle or even animals, have some sort of power inside of them. It is a mix of how strong you are magically, physically, spiritually, and in more ways then we can even imagine. Our power controls our abilities. Meaning if some of Voldemort's power had been shifted to you, Harry, your ability to speak to snakes would be explained. As for your connection to him, that would also explain that as well. With some of his power in you, you can touch his mind without any harm to you, yet he has none of your power in himself, so he hurts when he tried to possess you. Yes, Albus told me about that. And I believe, a good example, is Nagini herself."

"I don't understand," Harry said after a moment.

"Do you remember when you had the vision of Arthur Weasley being attacked by Nagini? (Harry nodded with a shiver at the memory.) Well how did you get into the snake's mind? The only solution I can think of is that you tapped into the part of Voldemort's soul that's in her with the power Voldemort accidentally gave you."

"That seems like a well rounded answer to me," Tonks said while patting Potter's shoulder. "Don't worry about it anymore Harry."

"You said that the flute was in the school," McGonagall said after a moment. "Where?"

Alyssa shifted and said, "The Snake Man's Secret Chamber."

"Pardon?" the confused headmistress asked.

"Why Miss. Bones means that the flute is in the Chamber of Secrets, Tom would have loved the irony of hiding something from me in my own school."

They all looked up to see that a very pleased looking Dumbledore had returned to his portrait, sitting in the chair. For the first time ever, there was a perch next to him, and a moment later Fawkes appeared in the portrait as well.

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

Well there you have it, I touched on the idea of Harry's scar being a horcrux, although I'm not using it in this story. I also managed to get a small mention of Hedwig, Fawkes, and Hagrid into the story!

As for all the names of the teachers up there, most of them are the actual names. I did my research for once! Haha! It took me a few minutes to remember how to spell Batusheda Babbling, who is actually the Ancient Runes teacher, and is a witch. I made the new transfiguration teacher Allana Whiteburn, although she will probably never be mentioned again, and I can't find the name of the muggle studies teacher anywhere so I made up Worland Whales. If someone knows what the real name is can they please tell me? I'm trying to keep track.

So, they're on top of the last horcrux they need to collect, and then they still need to destroy them. And we can't forget the final battle, and what the hell is going on with the H/Hr??? I'm giving myself a headache with all my own questions! Anyways I'm done ranting for now…

As always I want to thank my reviewers! You all always have something interesting to say, and I'm glad that you all like this story.

Points from the reviews:  
-Magical and Muggle worlds ARE hanging by a VERY thin thread, I can promise you this already.

-You saw why I didn't mention where the last horcrux was, because I wanted Alyssa to tell them where it was.

-Harry learned what happened to his family and knowing that they were all killed needlessly can be very motivating

**_Thank you to:_** thunder, Gloria, JDZ, Harry Potter Girll, aSyLLe-cLaiRe, Len87, Setoglomper, bluebell-uk, Demonically Angelic Neko88, and holimontski.

Now just for all you reviews, I've decided to let you in on a secret. This is chapter 24, but I am currently writing chapter 30. Now I'm just going through and editing some details in the chapters between (ideas and things like that, I'm sure you'll all notice grammar and spelling mistakes). I've been writing ahead of myself for awhile now. The point is that I'm not just going to vanish for a couple months like I did while writing Half-Blood Prince and Scars of Time.

Catch ya'll later!

_**Krystal Lily Potter **_


	25. The Secrets Held Within

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Twenty Five:_** The Secrets Held Within  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

* * *

Harry, Ron and Hermione walked together through the crowded halls of Hogwarts, ignoring the surprised looks they got from the students as they past. No one said anything to them, but they could hear the whispers as they walked by. Harry was sure that some were talking about the attack on Hogsmead, some where no doubt gossiping about their more rugged and tired appearances, but most seemed to be wondering the same thing that many people in the wizarding world were: where had Harry Potter and his friends vanished to for nearly a year.

The early May sun was shining in brightly through the windows, adding misery to the students because they couldn't go outside. Harry knew that it was still bitter cold out, and the mists that hung around most of Britain would be fast approaching, blocking the happiness from Hogwarts.

Fortunately, the teachers were able to scrounge up enough wards to keep unwanted witches and wizards out, but it did nothing for the muggles who were approaching. When they came near the castle Hagrid would often go outside, and if they weren't frightened by the giant man, then they would be frightened away by one of the creatures he had with him. It was a dangerous move, and risked revealing a lot, but it was better then the muggles breaking into the school, only to find hundreds of witches and wizards.

Harry shook those thoughts out of his head and concentrated on the task at hand. They had a mission to do, a place to get to, and even though the place was a dark and eerie place, Harry would live down there for the rest of his life rather then take one step into the Riddle house ever again.

"And Miss. Granger won the prize in second year for figuring out that the basilisk was moving round in the pipes," he said suddenly. "Allowing us to locate the Chamber and to save everyone."

A light blush appeared on Hermione's face as she swatted his arm before saying, "Honestly, you figured it out."

"With no help from Hagrid," Ron muttered quietly. "Follow the spiders! That was the worst advice ever!"

"You'd rather have it follow the butterflies, right mate?"

"Stuff it Harry."

Hermione rolled her eyes at the boys. It appeared that stepped into Hogwarts, the place where they had what little of a childhood they could remember, had brought out their immaturity. _Perhaps_, she thought, _I'm being too harsh on them. Maybe this is the way that teenagers are actually supposed to act_.

They walked through the second floor, where Professor Flitwick's classroom was. Harry noticed for a fleeting second, that a few of the students in the class stared at them as they walked by, but he didn't care.

"Goodness. I just had to see if the rumors were true."

"Hey Nick," Ron said while looking over at the ghost that had appeared. "You look…er…good?"

"I cannot say the same for you my young comrades, you look ghostly," Nick said with a smirk as his head wobbled slightly.

Ron snorted lightly before Harry said, "It's good to see you again Nick, but we really have to get going. We have a lot to do."

"Alright then, but I do hope you stay in the castle for now on Harry Potter," Nearly-Headless Nick said. "You brought hope back to the students when you showed up today." He quickly vanished up through the ceiling.

Harry stared at the spot where Nick had been with surprise. Hermione nudged him and said, "Come on, you can think about what he said later. We have a flute to find."

"Excited to get your hands on the flute Hermione?"

"Ronald!"

Harry laughed at his two friends, and winced slightly when he heard Hermione slap Ron, but not nearly hard enough for Ron to think that she was really angry with him.

Once the hallway was completely empty, aside from the three of them, Harry pushed open the door to the unused girl's bathroom and led the way in. It looked the same as the last time Harry had seen it, just as dark and damp, with an abandoned feel to it.

"It's hard to believe," Hermione said. "That we were twelve when we made that Polyjuice potion in here. That was five years ago!"

"Time flies when you're having fun, and fighting dark lords," Ron joked.

Harry walked towards the sinks, and found the one with the Snake engraved into it. He was about to try and speak parseltongue when a shriek filled the air.

"Ooooh Harry! It's good to see you."

"Hi Myrtle," he said dryly, not bothering to look around at her. He didn't care if he hurt the ghost's feelings right now; he was concentrating on trying to make the snake look life like.

She made an annoyed sound and said, "I've missed you here. Although, it was nasty of you to hurt that nice Draco Malfoy the last time you were here."

"That nice Draco Malfoy let the Death Eaters into the castle," Ron replied. "He's the reason that Dumbledore's dead. What do you think of that, Myrtle?

Myrtle ignored him and focused on Harry again while saying, "I do hope that you'll drop by more often now that you're back. I would enjoy another time like when you were in fourth year."

"What? Fourth year? Don't you mean second?" Harry asked with confusion, turning his attention from the sink to the ghost.

"No, fourth year. Remember, you were in the prefects bathroom and I helped you solve the egg?" Myrtle said with a flirtatious grin.

A mortified look appeared on Harry's face when the memory came back to him. Ron tried to hold back his laughter with little success, and Hermione glared at Myrtle for a moment before giggling.

"Do you have somewhere else to be Myrtle?" Harry asked, ignoring the burning, embarrassed blush on his cheeks as best as he could.

"No," she replied sweetly.

"So you enjoy being around living people, even though you can't eat, or even breathe like that can?"

Myrtle gave him an upset, disgusted look before turning and flying into one of the stalls and a splash told them that she had dived into her U-bend.

"That was horrible Harry," Hermione scolded him. Harry shrugged and moved towards the sinks again. He stared at the snake for a moment before glancing at his friends.

"Go for it," Ron encouraged.

"Open," he whispered.

"English mate," Ron said while shaking his hand.

"_Open_," Harry said again, and judging from the looks on his friend's faces he definitely did _not_ speak English this time.

Hermione gasped as the sink began to sink into the floor, she had been petrified the last time Harry and Ron made their way down into the chamber of secrets and hadn't known what to expect. She gripped Harry's hand tightly, but there was no fear on her face.

"Ready?" Ron asked as he began to approach the hole in the floor. Harry quickly stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder. Ron shot him a curious look and waited for him to get out what he wanted to say.

"Let me go first," Harry said after a moment. "It's been five years since we've been down there, we don't know how it's changed, or if anything else has moved in since the basilisk died."

Ron stared at him for a moment before nodding and saying, "Alright."

Hermione squeezed Harry's hand, but then let go as he approached the opening in the ground and grabbed Ron's instead.

"See you soon," Harry said to them before leaping into the hole.

Hermione whimpered slightly, squeezing Ron's hand tightly before saying, "Let me go next."

"Don't worry, Harry will be at the bottom when you get there," Ron said while patting her shoulder lightly.

She gave him a weak smile before jumping into the hole.

Ron took a deep breath as he watched her vanish into the darkness. He hadn't been in the main part of the Chamber, but it was still the last place he wanted to visit. Second last, he thought after a moment, I'd rather avoid the Riddle house beyond anything else.

Taking a deep breath and putting a confident look on his face Ron Weasley leapt into the opening in the ground and vanished into the darkness.

* * *

"Pray tell, why are we letting the three of them go down there on their own?" Tonks asked as she leaned forward in her chair slightly. Her bright purple eyes moved from the portrait to McGonagall and back again.

"They have been there before," Dumbledore replied happily. "And with the basilisk dead the danger is gone."

"When was the last time you were in the Chamber?" Remus asked skeptically.

"Never my good man," Dumbledore said while stroking Fawkes.

McGonagall sighed and said, "You'll have to excuse him. His portrait is much more…quirky than the Albus we had known."

"Alas, there is very little I can really do for the war at this point of time. There is only so much more advice I can give to Harry, as he is the one destined to defeat Voldemort, not I. Unless a war starts amongst the portraits of Hogwarts I remain in a world of peace," Dumbledore said serenely. His twinkling blue eyes turned to Sirius and he said, "You've been quite quiet Mr. Black, there's something on your mind." It wasn't a question, but a statement, one that didn't startle Sirius in the least.

Looking up at the portrait he said, "When I…returned from beyond the veil, Kingsley, Hestia and a few Unspeakables were there. They said that Fawkes had flown into the veil just before I returned, and that words of fire glowed on the arch itself."

"Ahh," Dumbledore said while nodding to himself. He looked at Fawkes, who perched on the painted stand by him. "Yes, I was wondering when you'd ask me that. The veil is a curiosity to the Ministry, and it was given the title Veil of Death or Veil of Darkness years ago from its foreboding looks, as well as the whispers that could be heard from behind it. There were some books written about it years ago, before my time, but most of them had been destroyed, except for one. The owner of the book was my mentor, but unfortunately it was lost years before I met him. He still knew about the veil, and told me that it would definitely lead the guilty to an untimely, yet worthy death. It was a less gruesome way of ridden the world of the terrible people who could not be redeemed. However, it was known when the veil was created, that there was a possibility that an innocent person could fall through it. In order to keep those unworthy of returning inside the darkness they could not remove the spells from it, so instead, the long dead creator created a ritual that would bring back an innocent person from beyond the veil."

"And I was an innocent person?" Sirius asked, a look of skepticism on his face, earning a chuckling from McGonagall.

"In the eyes of the veil, yes Sirius, you are. You had done nothing really wrong in your life, and you were accidentally thrown through the veil. With that you also still had a duty to perform in the land of the living, and destiny does not like when its plans do not come to pass. The ritual was a simple one, so simple that if it was written in a book and passed out to every home in the wizarding world most people would simply throw it out. It was my mentor, Nicolas Flammel, who told me the ritual in the first place. Nicolas certainly had a disposition for knowing what information a person would need later on in life, but he had lived hundreds of years already by this time. In order for the ritual to work the person thrown into the veil must be innocent in death, and an innocent, pure soul must willing trade their life for the one behind the veil."

"Fawkes was the pure soul," Remus whispered.

"What is more pure than a phoenix?" Dumbledore asked. "Not even a unicorn holds the purity of a phoenix does, but they are incredibly rare so there is relatively little known about them. I knew, from the time you fell into the depths on the veil that you would return one day with the help of Fawkes. A pure soul trades its life for an innocent person, there also had to be something ready and waiting for the returning person on the outside of the veil, in order to ground them to the world of the living and help them out of the darkness."

"Hedwig was there," Sirius said with confusion. "Why Hedwig?"

"I had told Fawkes of the ritual as soon as he was fully grown again. He understood the ritual, and agreed, when the time came, to perform it. He needed an accomplice though, and I had foreseen Harry being particularly busy this year, so I found the one creature with an incredibly close bond to Harry and told her the plan. Hedwig is a very bright out, smarter then most, and she knew what to do when the time came. She is bonded very close to Harry, who wanted to alive more then words can say. Because you needed to come back to help protect him, your want to do so, and his need to have a parent still, those are the real reasons you returned. Hedwig felt his need to have you alive, and she was able to help pull you through the veil."

"so the reason he was able to come back so easily, is because he still had a job to do?" Tonks asked.

"Quite right Nymphadora," the portrait said, ignoring the scowl on her pretty face.

"Does that only work for people thrown beyond the veil? Or for someone who died in general?" Remus asked.

Dumbledore sighed and said, "The dead will remain dead. Those who are thrown beyond are alive for a long period of time, before they finally die from exhaustion, dehydration and starvation. It takes a very long time for that to happen to an innocent though. So yes, only those thrown into the veil can return because they are technically not yet dead."

Sirius looked down at the floor for a moment before looking up the ask Dumbledore another question. He couldn't though, the portrait was suddenly empty.

"He does that more often then not," McGonagall said with a sigh, throwing a wary look at the empty frame.

* * *

Hermione screamed as she slid out of the tunnel, and right onto Harry, who had been getting up. He groaned as he hit the floor again, and foreseeing what was about to happen, he quickly moved himself and Hermione out of the way as Ron appeared next to them a moment later.

"Bloody hell," he groaned angrily. He opened his eyes and said, "Ahh hell! I forgot about the bones! You'd think that they would have turned to dust by now."

Hermione let out a light squeak before jumping off of Harry, giving the floor a disgusted look. He quickly stood up beside her and said, "Must be newer animals stuck down here."

"So this is the Chamber of Secrets?" Hermione asked with an almost disappointed tone.

"This is the entrance to it," Harry said. "We've got to go this way."

"I image that we'll have to get rid of the rest of the rockslide that was there," Ron said as they started walking down the long, dark tunnel. "You and G-Ginny barely fit through there when you were younger."

"You were also doing a rubbish job moving those rocks," Harry replied.

"My wand was broken! It wasn't even _my_ wand, it was a hand-me-down!"

"Still rubbish."

"Now boys," Hermione said sweetly. "You'll both just have to shut up or I'll never help you with anything ever again."

"Sorry Princess," Ron said sarcastically. "Is there anything we can do to make it up to you?"

"Why you could carry me through these bones," Hermione joked to them.

Harry and Ron shared a glance before saying, "I'd rather not." Hermione hit both of them over the head as they drew closer to the entrance. Finally they came upon the landslide that Lockhart had caused when his memory charm backfired. Without even waiting for Harry and Ron to pull out their wands Hermione's was out and she was silently moving all of the boulders. Within a minute the passage was completely cleared.

"I wish she was with us the first time," Ron said with a sigh.

"You and me both," Harry agreed as they continued on down the cave. The walls were starting to drip with water, and the cave was becoming cooler.

"I think," Hermione said slowly. "That we're under the lake."

"But we started out in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!" Ron said with surprise.

"Yes, but that was a long pipe we slid down," she explained. "And it curved enough for us to go under the lake."

"It would certainly explain why no one was ever able to find it," Harry agreed.

The three of them continued to walk in silence until Hermione let out a gasp. Harry had been looking at the floor, not really paying attention to where he was going. At her noise he looked up and found himself staring into the eyes of two large stone snakes, with glittering emerald for eyes.

Before Ron or Hermione could ask how to get past them he whispered, "Open." The stone snakes seemed to come alive, moving out of the way of the passage. Quickly Harry took the lead and walked through the opening.

"Bloody hell!" Ron yelled in surprise, his blue eyes darting around as he got his first glimpse of the Chamber of Secrets.

To Harry it looked the exact same as it did five years ago: dark, damp, and very Slytherin.

"You killed that thing?" Hermione said in a shrill voice. The two boys followed her gaze and their eyes landed on the large, slowly decaying corpse of a baslisk.

"Yeah," Harry said after a moment. "Ron, if you're not careful you'll catch some flies."

Ron closed his mouth, which had opened in shock, before saying, "I thought you were exaggerating when you said how big the snake was!"

Harry shook his head, and a frown appeared on his face as he said, "Shouldn't it be completely decomposed by now? And why doesn't it smell bad in here."

"A baslisk rots very slowly," Hermione said, sounding like a recorded textbook. "And it's a very magical creature, so I imagine that helps as well. As for no smell, I'm not sure exactly."

"I'm not complaining," Ron muttered. "Though if I had to chose I'd rather smell that thing dying rather than see it living."

Harry chuckled and clapped Ron's shoulder before walking past him and towards the large statue of Slytherin. There were still blood stains everywhere, causing Hermione to whimper at the sight of it. Harry's eyes lingered for a moment at the ink on the floor, but he quickly looked up at his friends instead.

"Where would a horcrux be in here?" Ron asked.

Harry shrugged and said, "You're guess is as good as mine."

Hermione left the two boys and began to look around at all the snake statues and said, "Well, we might as well get to work then."

The three of them split up, searching the chamber for any clues as to where the flute might be hidden.

"Harry! Hermione!" Ron yelled suddenly, and both his friends rushed over to where he was standing.

"What? Did you find something?" Hermione asked excitedly.

"Well I didn't find the flute, but isn't that the writing in that ancient book?" Ron asked while pointing at the wall.

Hermione stared at it for a moment before her eyes lit up and she said, "Yes it is! I felt so silly about bringing those books with me, but I knew that we could need them."

She rushed back to where she had set it bag, which was full of healing potions and anti-venoms, just in case. She pulled out the diary and said, "The basic translation is in here."

Harry and Ron didn't say anything as she brought out a muggle pencil, and a sheet of white paper, and went to work translating what the wall was saying.

"She's mental," Ron muttered while staring at her.

"True, but she's still brilliant," Harry said with a grin.

"I know. Hey Harry, I have a question that has nothing to do with the horcrux, the chamber, spells or anything else magical for that matter."

"Hmm?"

"Do you—"

"Got it!" Hermione said happily.

Whatever Ron was about to ask didn't seem important anymore as both of them knelt down on either side of her.

"Damn that was fast," Ron said.

"That's our Hermione," Harry joked while patting her shoulder.

She gave both of them a glowing smile before saying, "Listen to this, it's about why the founders chose this place for Hogwarts, and specifically why this place was chosen for the Chamber of Secrets. Not because it was well hidden, Slytherin could have securely hid it anywhere inside of the castle, but under the lake was the ideal place because of the magic going through it."

"The magic going through it?" Harry asked with confusion.

"Yes, haven't you heard of those lines that are supposed to be powerful, or hold magic, or something like that? They say one runs through Stone Hedge," Hermione said with a frown. "I can't remember what they're called, but that's not the point. It says that powerful line of magic runs right through Hogwarts and the lake, that's why the school was put here. It makes tapping into magic a lot easier!"

"So," Harry said after a moment. "What your saying is, that when we're in these magical lines or whatever they are, we're more powerful?"

"Yes," she replied. "Because it's easier to tap into magic. When we return home we don't notice the difference because we're so used to using magic that it doesn't make a difference to us."

"So we've been training like mad outside of magic," Ron said. "Does that mean if we tried it in here, it would work better?"

"Assumingly," she informed them. "But the line doesn't run exactly through Hogwarts, it runs beside it, the founders apparently thought that if the line went exactly through the castle that children would be hurt from an overdose of magic. Slytherin didn't agree, and so this chamber was created right on the line."

"Let's test it out," Ron said with a grin.

Harry smirked at Ron, walked a little bit away from them (just in case) and quickly, and silently, waved his hand to see how his wandless magic would react in here. The spell was only supposed to be a light reducto spell, but instead there was a huge explosion, and dust flew everywhere.

"Harry!" Ron and Hermione yelled, but he wasn't hurt, he was staring at the object that had blown up: the statue of Slytherin.

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked as she grabbed his arm and quickly looked him over for any obvious injuries. "Harry?'

His eyes were glued on the hole he made in the statue. He shrugged Hermione off and made his way towards the opening. Harry carefully walked into where Slytherin's mouth once was )where the basilisk had been hidden), and knelt down.

"Harry mate?" Ron asked as he walked up behind him.

Harry quickly stood up and said, "That was the best, stupid thing I've ever done."

"What?"

He turned around, grinning at his friends, and they gasped at what they saw: in Harry's hands was the Flute of Ravenclaw.

* * *

**_Author's Note  
_**  
So they have all the horcrux that they can find now, and I explained more about how Sirius came back. Woot! I've also finally figured out what I'm going to do with the horcrux! Just wait and see. Normally I'd say if there were any suggestions, but by the time you're reading this I'll probably have the story finished, as I finished writing this just after I posted chapter 19.

I also have like four other ideas for stories, three I'd like to work on, and no, that does not include a sequel to Scars of Time, I did start one but that was just a bad idea, as I had no clue where I was going with it.

There isn't much I want to point out, but we will be finding out exactly why Harry survived and just because I have the chapter written doesn't mean I'll updating any faster than before.

So thank you to: thunder, pupdawg66, SiriusLeeBlack09, Demonically Angelic Neko88, Freedomstar, JDZ, Harry Potter Girll, holimontski, Isadora120, miligurl08.

I really appreciated the reviews! You guys are the best! The next update might not be for a week or so because I have two essays, a power point, and another huge project due…all within the same time frame so yeah…school comes first!

**_Krystal Lily Potter _**


	26. To Destroy A Soul

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Twenty Six:_** To Destroy a Soul  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

* * *

Getting out of the chamber had been a problem none of them had thought of before entering it, as Fawkes wasn't around to help them get out this time, but luck seemed to be on their side for once. As it happened, Harry got impatient, and decided to try and apparate out of the chamber, despite the temporary wards that had been placed up. Luckily, he had apparated himself, Ron and Hermione in the few seconds between when the wards had falling and when the teachers repaired them.

"Really," Hermione said angrily. "There must be a way to get out of there. I bet the pipes turn into stairs or something. I doubt that Voldemort, or Slytherin for that matter, would have been dangling on the end of an animal dragging them up the pipe."

"We're out, that's all that matters," Ron said. "Should we go get Sirius and everyone?"

"Not yet," Harry said quickly. "We need to go somewhere where no one will catch us trying to destroy these." He motioned to the flute that was hidden up his sleeve, so that no students would see it.

"We could wrap them in the invisibility cloak," Hermione suggested.

"And have it look like we're carrying air?" Ron replied sarcastically. "I bet that won't make anyone suspicious."

"Or we stuff them in our pockets, go to the shrieking shack, and think of something where there are no students to listen to us," Harry said before Hermione could retaliate.

"That works too," she said after a moment, get eyes glaring dangerous at Ron still.

"Come on, now," Harry said quickly as he moved towards the Whomping Willow. "Classes as still in and we don't want anyone seeing us go into the passage."

"We need a long stick," Ron said, looking around for something that they could use to freeze the tree. There was nothing in sight that would be long enough to use.

Hermione looked down as she felt something brush against her leg, and saw her ginger, squished faced cat run by.

"Crookshanks? Where has he been?" Ron asked with confusion.

"I left him at the Burrow," Hermione said. "Gi…your sister must have brought him with her."

They all watched as Hermione's familiar moved towards the tree undetected, and pressed the knot at the base of it. Turning to his owner with his paw still in place he let out a light meow.

"That," Harry said as they quickly went inside the secret passage. "Is the smartest cat I've ever met."

Hermione nodded her head and said, "Yes he is."

"Too bad Pig isn't the same way," Ron muttered as the three of them quickly moved through the tunnel.

* * *

Three hours, twenty seven minutes and forty eight seconds later, Harry, Ron and Hermione sat on the ruined furniture of the Shrieking Shack, staring at the locket, the cup and the flute with blank expressions. Despite what they had read in books none of them knew what to do with the three horcrux.

"Why not just throw a spell at them and see what happens?" Ron suggested after a few more moments of silence.

"And get ourselves blown up by a massive spell backlash? I think not!" Hermione said while giving him a look that quite strongly resembled Professor McGonagall.

"How do we even know that the spells would backfire unless we try something?" Ron snapped back. "I mean Harry stabbed the diary and Dumbledore…well we don't know what Dumbledore did to the ring, but it's worth a try."

"The basilisk venom is what destroyed the horcrux itself," Harry said after a moment. "I don't think that the soul would have been destroyed if I just stabbed it with anything else. It was the poison that did it in."

"It had to be killed," Hermione said. "Of course! We can't just destroy these things; they do have parts of a living person in them. We have to kill them!"

"So what do you suggest? Throwing the killing curse at them?" Ron asked skeptically.

"No, I think we should save that for a last resort," Hermione said. "Just in case something goes wrong. What we need to know is how to kill these things without harming ourselves. I bet the venom worked because Harry stabbed it into the heart of the book."

"Meaning we can't just try and destroy these things," Harry said. "They're metal; we have to get what's going to kill them on the inside."

They were silent for a moment before Hermione gasped and said, "Acid!"

"What?" Ron asked with confusion.

"Muggle acid is very corrosive. If you would put your hand in it the acid would corrode your hand, and if your whole body went in it you'd be a goner. You two wait here," she said excitedly as she jumped up. "I'll go see if we can get some or an equivalent to it. I'll probably have to wait until all the classes are settled to come back down here so no one sees me, but I'll be back." Without waiting for them to reply she ran out of the room and back into the underground passage.

"Mental," Ron muttered under his breath. He looked at the three items and said, "Are you sure that's the only thing that will work?"

"It seems like a good idea," Harry said. "For the flute and the locket, but the cup is another thing, I don't think that is going to work."

Ron didn't ask why, he simply watched as he friend picked it up and said, "It's a different type of metal for one, and plus the magic in it…well I can feel the darkness inside the flute and the locket, but it's different here. It feels as if the soul is outside the cup, just latching onto it."

"Why wouldn't that acid stuff work then?"

"I think the soul will protect it," Harry said after a moment. "Dumbledore did something with the ring that injured him greatly, and I doubt he threw it into a dangerous potion. He used some type of magic, and he didn't destroy it right away. He wore it for awhile before it was completely gone."

"That's kinda creepy," Ron said. "Wearing a piece of Voldemort's soul."

"Don't I know it," Harry said as he thought of the many times he wore the locket under his shirt. "But no, I don't think the acid will work for the cup."

Ron looked at his feet for a moment before looking up at Harry and asked, "Do you trust me, Harry?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"Just answer it."

"Yes Ron, I do," Harry said without hesitation.

"Then stand back…very far back. Please Harry," Ron added, seeing that he was about to object. "I need to do this."

At that moment Harry saw that Ron was right, he needed to do this, not to prove something to the rest of the world, but to do it for himself.

Harry backed up until he was close to the door, wondering what his friend was going to do.

Ron concentrated before saying, "_Avada Kedavra_!"

"RON!" Harry roared with horror when he heard the words leave his friend. He prayed for a split second that it wouldn't work, that Ron wasn't strong enough to cast the spell. His prayers went unanswered though, as the bright green curse left Ron's wand and collided with the cup.

There was an ear splitting scream of pain, but it didn't come from either boy in the room. It seemed to be coming from the cup itself. As the curse slammed into the cup, the gold colored plating began to crack before shattering, and a black orb was left floating in the air. The green of the spell flew around it for a moment before the black thing let out another scream and exploded.

Harry was thrown backwards, out the door and into the wall across from it. He stared at the door for a moment, stunned, before terror went through him. He pushed himself up and ran back into the room.

"RON!"

Ron wasn't in the room, but the window, and the wall underneath the window, was missing. Harry dashed to the edge of it and saw Ron lying on the ground, still and pale.

"No," Harry muttered and was about to leap from the second story of the house when Ron's eyes opened slightly and he mouthed one word, 'horcrux'.

Harry turned around and stuffed the locket into his pocket and the flute up his sleeve before rushing out the door and down the stairs. The boarded up door downstairs exploded as he rushed towards it, and he ran out beside his friend.

* * *

Hermione was just outside of the whomping willow and was running up towards the castle when a terrible scream met her ears. She stopped running, and whirled around, looking in the direction of Hogsmead. A few seconds later a second, identical scream followed.

She didn't wait for Crookshanks to hit the knot again, and she didn't care that the tree had just given her a large gash on her arm. She quickly slid back into the tunnel and started running towards the Shrieking Shack again; running faster then she had ever done before.

"Harry! Ron!" she cried out as she flew through the secret passage into the house. It was eerily quiet now, too quiet in her opinion when Harry and Ron were left in a room together.

She was about to run upstairs when she stopped, and backed up a bit. The front door that was normally boarded up appeared to have exploded. Quickly running out the entrance, she found herself in front of the house and saw several people gathered around a spot a few feet away.

"Move!" Hermione shouted as she pushed through the people roughly. When she finally got through the gathering people she froze in place. Harry was kneeling next to Ron, who almost looked…dead.

Harry's head snapped around to her and he said, "He's alive. They've sent word to Madam Pomfrey to get down here as quickly as possible."

Hermione knelt down next to Harry and said, "What happened? I leave you two alone for five minutes and…and…" She couldn't finish her sentence, instead she burst into tears.

"Harry, Hermione," Ron managed to wheeze out. "Destroy them…destroy them all." He blacked out again after saying what he needed to say.

Harry looked from Ron, to Hermione, and back again with a torn look on his face. Eventually he kept one hand on Ron's neck, so he could feel his pulse, allowing him to know that his friend was alive, and the other arm he wrapped around his sobbing friend comfortingly.

They were still like that when Madam Pomfrey, Professor McGonagall, Sirius and Remus showed up.

* * *

"What happened to him Mr. Potter?" Madam Pomfrey asked after she stabilized Ron. Her tone was low, and warm, but there was a deadly serious look on her face.

"A spell backfired, well actually no, the spell worked, but what he was using the spell on exploded and he was thrown out the window," Harry said, not looking into her eyes.

"What spell was he using, and on what?" she persisted, much to his annoyance.

"He used the spell silently, so I don't know what it was," Harry lied. "But he hit a metal cup."

Hermione's eyes widened slightly, but only Harry noticed.

Madam Pomfrey sighed and said, "I will have to keep him here over night to run some more tests. You, Mr. Potter, stay out of trouble. You show up at the school and already one of you is hurt! Now shoo."

"No, please," Hermione squeaked. "Let us stay with him."

"Absolutely not," the healer growled. "Now out! I will send word for you if his condition changes."

"Come on guys," Sirius whispered, putting a hand on Harry and Hermione's shoulders and leading them out of the room.

"McGonagall got a hold of Molly and Arthur, they're on their way over," Sirius said slowly. "Harry, what spell did Ron use on the cup?"

"Avada Kedavra," Harry whispered, barely able to hear his own words.

Hermione stopped walking and swung around so that she was facing Harry, standing quite close to him. Her eyes were wide and she looked particularly vicious. "You let him do it Harry, even after I said not to!"

Sirius looked around, noticing a few wandering students stopping to stare at them. He quickly grabbed their arms and dragged them down the hall. When he reached an abandoned classroom he said, "Tell me what's going on."

"Ron suggested using Avada Kedavra on the horcrux when we realized we actually had to kill the soul inside of it," Hermione said through clenched teeth, her eyes narrowing at Harry. "I was coming back to see if we could get some acid. I thought at least you would have been smart enough to stop him Harry!"

Now his eyes narrowed at her and he said, "The cup felt different! The soul and dark magic was protecting the outside of it since there was no way to get it actually inside the cup! I mentioned it and Ron asked me if I trusted him. Of course I said yes, and he told me to back up some, so I listened to him, trusting him for once. I didn't know what he was going to do! I don't read my friends' minds without permission!"

"You could have tried to stop him!"

"How?" Harry yelled back. "You blink and the spell has been cast, and the effects of it obvious! All you see is a flash of green and it's over! What was I supposed to do?!"

Sirius looked from one, to the other and sighed. He looked down at his hands and said, "I'm going to tell McGonagall what happened, and ask Dumbledore his pointing on what to do. You two…don't kill each other!" He walked out the door, slamming it shut behind him.

Harry didn't say anything, and neither did Hermione. They continued to glare at each other, before Hermione broke down into tears again. A guilty look passed over Harry's face as he hugged her and said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled. He'll be fine, don't worry."

Hermione didn't stop crying. She clung to him before saying, "I-I don't think I've cried more in my life then I have this year."

"It's my fault," he said as he tested his chin on the top of her head. "I'm sorry Hermione. I know how to feel about Ron, and he'll be alright. He's a fighter."

Hermione let out a strangled laugh and said, "Yes, yes he is. But Ron's my friend Harry…and that's all he'll ever be. I love him like a brother."

"A sister doesn't chase their brother like you did to him last year."

"Things come and go Harry," she muttered. "I don't like Ron in that way, and he knows it, we've talked about it. I'm just so worried."

"I know, I am too," Harry replied as he hugged her tightly.

"Do you have your invisibility cloak?"

"I will once we find out where they stashed all of our stuff," he said while letting her go. Harry clasped her hands tightly into his and asked, "Are you sure you're all right?"

Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again for a moment. She continued to stare at Harry until she said, "I will be."

He smiled at her, and they both left the empty classroom.

* * *

Harry and Hermione sat together in the hallway outside of the hospital wing. After many attempts at finding Harry's cloak it was finally revealed that McGonagall had confiscated it for the time being, so they wouldn't be sneaking around. Throwing caution to wind, they both agreed that, since they technically weren't students anymore, the worst that could happen to them is to be told to get to bed.

The door to the hospital wing flew open, and a very distracted Charlie Weasley stormed out of it, looking miserable. He sighed and leaned against the wall opposite of Harry and Hermione, not yet noticing them. After a moment he turned, and, noticing them for the first time, he yelped and jumped backwards.

"Harry, Hermione, what are you doing here?" he hissed at them.

"Ron," was the only thing Hermione said.

"How is he?" Harry asked, knowing that Pomfrey wasn't going to tell them anytime soon.

A sad look passed over Charlie's face as he said, "Not so good. Pomfrey…she doesn't think that he'll s-survive the night."

Harry and Hermione both appeared to be completely stunned by those words. Both went pale, and looked rather terrified.

"No, no you're lying!" Hermione screamed. "You're lying, Charlie!"

"What's going on?" A tired looking Madam Pomfrey was standing at the door, hands on her hips and looking angrier than normal. "Mr. Potter, Miss. Granger, why aren't you two in bed?"

"We're not students here," Harry snapped at her. "We don't have to. Is it true then? You don't think Ron will live?"

They stared at each other for a moment before the older woman broke down and said, "I'm sorry. I know this is hard, but his injuries are so extensive, and there was so much of that metal and glass in him. I don't plan on losing hope yet though."

Hermione stared at her for a moment, before letting out a sob and running down the dark corridor. Without so much as a glance back at Charlie and Pomfrey he took off after his female friend.

"Hermione! Hermione!" He yelled as he ran after her. Harry had never known that she could run so fast. With a great leap he managed to stop her by tackling her to the floor. She sobbed underneath him, not saying anything.

"He wanted us to destroy them Hermione," Harry whispered. "It was the last thing he said. If this is the last thing we'll hear from him, we should honor it. We have two choices, to give up and let our losses control us, or to let them make us stronger, and keep pushing on. What's it going to be?"

She rolled over so that she was looking at him before nodding and saying, "The Room of Requirement."

He nodded and stood up, pulling her up with him. They didn't say anything; they just looked at each other for a moment before quickly walking down the dark corridors.

* * *

"So we just drop them in there?"

Harry and Hermione had entered the Room of Requirement, only to find a single, huge vat of acid in the middle of the room. It appeared harmless enough, unlike the potions, but Harry knew better then to stupidly stick his hand into it to test it.

"We might have to run back quickly," Hermione said after a moment. "I don't know how it will react to these." She held the flute in her hand, and Harry held the locket in his.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Ready," she said. At the same time they let the horcruxes fall into the clear liquid, which started sizzling and hissing. They both backed away from it, watching as the clear liquid turned black.

"Get away from it," Harry said urgently, pulling Hermione back. The cauldron the acid was in started glowing a dangerous shade of green, and suddenly there was an explosion. Screams like those that had been heard when the cup was destroyed echoed through the air and the acid flew everywhere.

Hermione let out a scream, and Harry quickly grabbed her and shielded her, but the room came to their aid. A thick, glass wall appeared between them and the liquid, saving them from any injuries. They watched as two black orbs soared into the air, and both of the orbs let out another horrible scream as they too exploded.

"Merlin," Harry muttered, still clutching her protectively.

"Harry," Hermione said. "All that's left is Nagini and Voldemort himself! Then it's over! Ron, I hope you know that." She whispered the last part into the air.

Throguhout Hogwarts the sleeping students and staff were woken up by the terrible screams, and up in the hospital wing, a light grin appeared on Ronald Weasley's face.

Yes, Weasleys were definitely fighters.

* * *

**_  
Author's Note_**

So they were finally destroyed. I know, not very original approaches to destroying them, but yeah…

Thank you to everyone for reviewing. FreedomStar, thunder, Setoglomper, pupdawg66, SiriusLeeBlack09, TheWhiteTomb, holimontski, Josh52629, JDZ, Goldenwing.17, ttrslk, TreenBeen, Demonically Angelic Neko88, and Narutolovesraman…I appreciate all the suggestions, concerns and criticism.

Now, for Demonically Angelic Neko88:

Waters of life bring forth your power  
Take us to the past, bring the past to us  
The waters of time will wash over us  
The waters of time will bring knowledge  
Take our chosen one to the past  
Show what we need to see  
Waters of life reveal your might

If you try to read it the other way though you might find a letter or two missing, some people told me there wasn't, but you never know. And now for some notes on the reviews!

-Yes that was the quickest way they could have got it, but remember, Riddle originally planned to give anyone that got that far hell with the basilisk.  
-Hermione was more clingy, but I figured that she's never been in the chamber before, so it would frighten her more than Harry and Ron.

-Lockhart will not be making an appearance (lol)  
-How the magic world deals with the muggle world is already planned out, I just need to write it.

-Chapters are moving a bit too fast, but when getting to the end of a story I usually speed things up before I get bored with it and forget about the story (like all the other ones on my account)

-I will NOT be finishing this up with a big "and they all lived happily ever after…" Trust me, none of you have any idea on how I plan on ending the war.

Well that's about all, now I've got to go to school! Haha!

**_Krystal Lily Potter_**


	27. Before the Storm

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Twenty Seven:_** Before the Storm  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.

**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, excreta.

* * *

Voldemort stared at his minions, his blood red eyes looking front one face to the next. His most loyal followers gathered at the front, made of the purest of purebloods, and the half-bloods who, like himself, shunned their muggle origin and embraced the wizarding world.

He took in a deep breath, relishing the feeling of death and darkness that was in the air. This was the ideal world to him, something he had been working relentlessly since he had found out his origin. It was a shame that Slytherin was forced out of Hogwarts, that he had lost all of his dreams of a pureblooded world to the three 'lesser' founders.

Hogwarts, it had been the one place he had called home when he was younger. It was his right to be there, he was an heir of a founder, and he would have been there, a teacher and then later on the Headmaster no doubt, then he would have made the school follow his rules, starting with the exile of all muggle-born children. Perhaps even sacrifice all of those who had already been allowed into the school, for the greater good of course.

Unfortunately, his dreams had come to an end when he had been rejected by Dumbledore, who, somehow, knew Voldemort's true colors before he revealed himself to the rest of the wizarding world.

But Dumbledore was dead now, and for some reason the wards around Hogwarts and several other smaller places were falling, it was impossible to keep them up for very long. At first Voldemort had thought about apparating in when the wards fell, even though his inside contact at Hogwarts told him that the wards were put back up seconds after they fell. He came up with a better idea though; why not just lead all of his forces in on foot? The teachers would detect his presence once they passed the wards, but there would be nothing that they could do about it. They would not be able to fight off all of his forces.

Some of his Death Eaters whispered, why not attack in the Ministry instead of Hogwarts? Wasn't the ministry more important? Voldemort pretended that he didn't hear the whispers, but he always did. Why wouldn't he attack Hogwarts first? It was the place where the strongest witches and wizards were made, where the Ministry's army came from. Destroy the key link on a chain, and the rest would come falling down. After Hogwarts he would attack the Ministry, claiming Britain as his own, and then he would move on and strike Beauxbaton and Durmstrang.

"My followers, my friends," he cried out suddenly, while raising his hands into the air. "The time has come to take our rightful place in the wizarding world, the place of power. We will march to Hogwarts and take the castle. The muggleborns will be slaughtered, the half-bloods imprisoned, and the purebloods offered the chance to follow us. We will create our own school; we will create our own world! Dumbledore's dead, the protection is gone. Potter has not been seen for some time, now is the perfect time to strike!"

His followers yelled their approval at his words. No matter if most of them thought attacking the Ministry would make sense, he was their Lord, and what he said was their law.

Voldemort smirked as he stared at his followers.

Down below him, in the front row, a man with oily black hair and cold black eyes stared up at the man he claimed as his Lord. He stared at him with the same expression many of the others did, but a different thought was running through his well protected mind.

Potter had better be ready for this.

Unbeknownst to everyone in the room, an owl from the spy at Hogwarts was intercepted, so Voldemort did not find out the one problem with his plan: Harry Potter was at Hogwarts now.

* * *

Draco Malfoy paced back and forth in his bedroom. He could hear his parents arguing about something down the hall, but he didn't care. Recently Voldemort had attacked Azkaban, and had released all of the followers that had been held in the building. Unfortunately, for the light side, that included Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy, Fenrir Greyback and Bellatrix Lestrange, amongst others.

Draco leaned against the window in his room, staring out over the darkened forest by his house. He had gone to the assembly to listen to the dark lord speak, but he hadn't liked what he heard. They were going to attack Hogwarts, and there were still people there that he did care about.

Sighing angrily he moved from the window and sat down on his bed. It was the first time in months that he had actually stepped foot into the Malfoy manor again, and he was wishing that he wasn't there. His eyes darted around the room and his mind ran in thought.

Finally Draco came to a decision; he went over to his window and pushed it open. Quickly he climbed out and grabbed onto one of the vines that climbed up the side of the Malfoy manor. He quickly shimmied down it, jumping to the ground when he was a few feet away.

Without a glance back at his childhood home he ran towards the forest so that he could apparate with a determined look on his face. A slight grin appeared on his normally straight face as he could picture, if his Great Aunt Black were still alive, her screaming angrily and blasting his name off of the Black family tapestry. What he didn't know was, that years earlier, his second cousin Regulus Black had done the same thing he was about to do. Draco was certainly going against everything that the Blacks and the Malfoys stood for.

* * *

For the first time in months Harry Potter and Hermione Granger sat in the Great Hall for lunch. They sat at the Gryffindor table, like they had done for the past six years, but they stood out against the rest of the school. Neither of them wore their uniforms, and neither of them intended on going to classes later that day.

There were many people looking over at them, whispering. It was rumored that they had something to do with the screaming that was heard yesterday and last night, but there was no proof of it. It was the oddest thing that had happened all year, and everyone knew it was no coincidence that the odd happenings started up whenever Harry Potter was around, like when the wards fell.

"What?" Hermione snapped at several Ravenclaws who were whispering and pointing at them. "Is there something on my face that you're trying to point out?"

The young girl's face went red, and none of them pointed at Harry or Hermione again, but the whispers continued on.

Harry picked at his breakfast, and saw a flash of blond out of the corner of his eye. He looked up only to see Luna Lovegood sit beside him.

"Hello," she said brightly to them. "I take it your journey went well? Did you meet any Snorkiks?"

"What are Snorkiks?" Harry asked with confusion. Hermione rolled her eyes at Luna, but still smiled at the girl's dreamy look that she managed to maintain, even through the war.

Before Luna could answer, Neville sat down beside Hermione and asked, "Where's Ron?"

A pained look passed over Hermione's face and she said, "The hospital wing. He was trying to use a spell that backfired."

The students were starting to leave for their first class of the day, and on reflex Harry and Hermione stood up when Neville and Luna did. They walked with their friends out of the hall, but before Neville could start heading to Charms, Harry grabbed his arm.

"Yeah?" Neville asked while staring at him curiously.

"I need to talk to you about something," Harry said after a moment. "Something very important that I think you should know. It can wait…but…"

"Time's of the essence now," Neville said while nodding. "Alright, I'll explain to Flitwick that it was important, that's all."

"I'll be in our rooms, doing research," Hermione said to Harry. He nodded and she turned to walk up the staircase.

Harry and Neville walked down the hall until they were almost by the entrance to the school, but they didn't go out. McGonagall had explained the rules about going outside, and how it was dangerous to Harry and Hermione last night.

"You remember the prophecy in the department of mysteries?" Harry asked when he was sure that they were alone.

"The one I accidentally got smashed? Yeah I remember," Neville replied.

"It was only a copy of it. I heard the actual prophecy, but I'm not going to tell you exactly what it said, because Voldemort doesn't know the entire thing, and you never know…the walls have ears after all. The reason I'm telling you this though, is because the prophecy said that a child born at the end of July, whose parents defied Voldemort three times, would be the one to kill the maniac. I was one child that the prophecy could have applied to…and did apply to after what happened on Halloween, but the other one could have been you."

"Me? You mean I could have been the Boy-Who-Lived?" Neville asked with shock.

"Exactly," Harry replied. "That's why I trusted you with the DA; because I know you have everything inside of you that I do…you're just missing the scar."

Neville stared at the floor for a moment before saying, "I don't think so Harry, not really. You're just saying that according to the prophecy either one of us could have been chosen, but you know, I think you were destined to be it. I think you are more powerful then I am, whether you realize it or not. Thank you for telling me."

They stood in silence for a moment before Neville said, "I should get to class—"

They both turned around with surprise when they heard someone running in their direction, yelling their names. Hermione appeared around the corner, her face flushed from the run and the Marauder's map clenched tightly in her hand.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked her with worry.

She pointed to the map, managed to get back her breath and said, "Malfoy! Malfoy's in the grounds!"

* * *

"Well this was probably a bad idea," Draco muttered as he jogged through the Forbidden Forest. He could see the tall towers of the castle as he approached, and his heart hammered at his chest when he realized what he was doing. He was going back to the place where many of the students would probably kill him on sight, but he didn't stop, he had to keep going to warn them.

He got out of the forest and started climbing the stairs that led up to the castle. Draco noticed that Hagrid's hut was still in ashes from last year, and realized that the half-giant probably lived in the castle now, for protection. No one else was outside, and the castle had an almost creepy look to it now.

Draco was about to approach the covered bridge that would lead him into Hogwarts when he stopped. He heard the sound of feet running in his direction, and before he could even blink Harry, Hermione and Neville were in front of him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked them the same time that they asked him the same question.

There was a silence before Draco said, "The Dark Lord said that you hadn't returned to Hogwarts. He won't be happy with his informant then."

"There's a spy in Hogwarts still?" Neville asked with surprise.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" Hermione growled as she stalked up to him, pointing her wand at his neck.

Draco's eyes shifted from her threatening glare, to Longbottom's nervous look, and then to Harry's monotone glance. Making eye contact with Harry he said, "I came to do the right thing, I came to warn you."

"Warn us?" Neville asked with confusion.

"He's going to attack Hogwarts," Draco explained. "He has it planned. The invasion will begin soon. He didn't say when exactly, all we knew is that he's doing it."

Harry sighed before saying, "Hermione, leave him alone."

Hermione, Neville and Draco were stunned by his words. Hermione stared at him for a moment before backing away from Draco and standing on Harry's right side.

"You're telling the truth, I don't know why I believe you, but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. I have to ask though, why? You said that I'd regret sending your dad to jail, and then there was that time on the train just before sixth year. Why are you helping us Draco?" Harry asked.

It was the first time that Harry had ever used his first name, and Draco noticed this. There was no malice in Harry's tone, just tired curiosity. He stared at the three of them, wondering for a moment where Weasley was, as he was not present, but that wasn't important right now.

"I've been living an illusion of being the perfect pureblood," he said honestly. "The Dark Lord is an insane man, I mean…it's like the question, if an evil person wants to destroy the world then were will they live? I see now, since I haven't had my father around and I've got to see exactly how the Death Eaters live, that his version of how life should be just doesn't make sense. I'm not sure if I'm going for the winning side, but I am going for the right side, and I realize that makes me a better wizard then any of those—monsters"

Harry smirked and said, "I see where you're coming from. I'll tell you what, you tell us everything you know about Voldemort, and I'll sneak you into a private room in the castle." He held his hand out, waiting for Draco to take it.

Malfoy flashed back to first year, when he had offered Potter his hand for friendship, but he hadn't taken it. Draco knew now would have been the ideal time to reject his offer, but it wasn't a selfish offer. Potter was offering him a place of safety away from his father, for the moment at least.

"Deal," Draco said and shook Harry's hand.

* * *

"There are hundreds of them," Hermione whispered. "How are we going to be able to compete with that?"

After hearing what Malfoy had to say about the Death Eaters, and about the number of them, Harry and Hermione retreated to Harry's room to talk about what they had found out.

They had brought Malfoy to McGonagall first, who had been tempted to throw the boy in the dungeons, but she had agreed that his best interests were at heart now, and she had given him a room just down from where Harry and Hermione's were. Draco, of course, was to be guarded all the time, so that he would not do something stupid, like send a letter to the Death Eaters or anything. Tonks was currently sitting in her cousin's room, talking to him about their shared family.

Harry leaned back on the chair he was sitting on before saying, "I don't know. I—"

"Hmm that does seem bad," a voice interrupted.

They both turned and saw Professor Dumbledore standing in the portrait that had been placed in their room. The portrait was only one of lion cubs playing, and they currently batted at Dumbledore's long robes.

"Do you have any ideas, or advice on what we should do?" Hermione asked.

"Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it," Dumbledore said to them.

"What?" Harry said, while raising his eyebrow.

"We are only as strong united, as weak as we are divided," Dumbledore said before strolling out of the frame leisurely, the little lions chasing after him.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked with an annoyed look. "That man…portrait…is insane!"

Harry was staring at the empty frame before he gasped and stood up quickly, "That's what he said at the end of the year feast in fourth year."

"So?"

"Hermione," he said quickly. "He was saying that when he invited Durmstrang and Beauxbaton to return if they wanted to! Don't you understand, he was hinting to us, we should ask them for help!"

"Do you think that they'll help?" she asked, standing up off of the bed. "And I mean do you _really_ think that they'll do it?"

"It's worth a shot," Harry said.

They stared at each other before quickly leaving the room, hoping to find McGonagall before supper began, to find out exactly where the other two European schools were.

* * *

"This is Durmstrang?" Harry asked, staring at the castle. It was a darker looking castle that was visibly smaller then Hogwarts, but their grounds were easily bigger. Harry and Hermione were bundled up in their cloaks; they hadn't expected it to be as cold as it was, espeically around that time of year.

"I guess," Hermione replied as the two walked up to the castle. They reached the main doors and noticed that there was no handles on the door. "It must have to be opened from the inside."

"So how do we let someone know we're here?" he asked while reaching under his cloak to straighten his Gryffindor tie. They had agreed to wear their school uniforms, so that the teachers would be more willing to listen to them, seeing students instead of what looked like random travelers they would appear less dangerous or intimidating.

Hermione let out a light squeak and grabbed Harry's arm when the doors dissolved, and a tall, surly looking man stood in front of them.

"Vho are you?" them an asked in a strong, threatening accent.

Hermione gripped Harry's arm harder as he said, "I'm Harry Potter sir, and this is Hermione Granger. We're from Hogwarts, and we're like to speak with the Headmaster."

The man eyed Harry's forehead, and nodded when he saw the scar. "Follov me."

Hermione moved her hand from Harry's arm, only to grasp his hand tightly as they followed the man through the dark halls of Durmstrang. The castle seemed much colder then Hogwarts and it was easy to see why Krum had said that Hogwarts was a much bigger and nicer castle. Part of it looked in ruins, and Harry could feel the stench of dark magic assaulting him.

"Headmaster Chavdar," the man said as he pushed knocked on a white brick on the wall. A second later the brick started glowing and the wall dissolved like the doors had. A moment later a rather short, pudgy man with thick black hair and a scowl on his face appeared in the entrance way.

"Yes Professor Miroslav?"

"These tvo Hogvarts students are here to see you," he said while pointing at Harry and Hermione.

Chavdar stared at them for a moment before nodding and saying, "Come in."

They carefully walked into the office, and Hermione gave the wall that appeared behind them a nervous glance. They followed the Headmaster up the steep staircase until they came to a large office with dark colored furniture.

"Sit," he said to them, pointing to the two chairs that had appeared out of no where. Chavdar sat behind his desk, and stared at the two of them expectantly. "Vhy have you come here?"

"Headmaster Chavdar," Harry said respectfully. "I'm Harry Potter and this is Hermione Granger. We're students at Hogwarts, or at least we were. In the past year, instead of attending classes, we have been working hard at defeating Voldemort. A rogue Death Eater came to Hogwarts yesterday and warned us of an approaching invasion. All of Voldemort's forces are going to be attacking Hogwarts. This, I believe, is our best chance at killing him, but we need more help."

"You vant me to send my students to var?" the man said slowly.

"Well no…yes," Hermione said after a moment. "We know it sounds crazy sir, but we need more people to fight. If we don't win this fight it's over, we've lost. We don't have enough people to fight now."

"So you resort to students?"

"Sir, get passed the students part," Harry said with an angry sigh. "We need people to fight to win. There are not enough students, staff, Aurors and Order of the Phoenix members in Britain to stop him from winning."

"I understand that you need help," Chavdar said viciously. "But no, my students vill not fight in your var."

Harry stood up and glared at the Headmaster angrily before saying, "This is your war too, keep that in mind when Voldemort invades here and there's no one left to help you. Come on Hermione, we've wasted our time here."

She grabbed his hand again and followed him back down the staircase. The wall was already open when they reached the bottom.

Hermione was about to start heading towards the main doors when Harry grabbed her arm and started dragging her in the opposite direction. She stared at her with confusion as they walked towards a pair of large doors.

"Where are you taking us Harry?" she asked him.

"That's their Great Hall, don't ask how I know, I just do," he said and with a wave of his hand the door burst open. All the heads in the great hall turned around and stared at them with bewilderment.

"Er…hi," Harry said after a moment before working up his confidence again. "My name's Harry Potter and I'm sure you're all wondering why I'm here. We'll you see I just had a conversation with your headmaster, who refused my request, but I think it's up to you all to choose. Voldemort (many people winced), and his complete army are going to be attacking Hogwarts sometime soon. There are not enough of us to defend Hogwarts on our own. We're asking those with enough experience and will to come and help us. If you don't want to, I don't blame you, but we do need help."

There was loud yelling behind him, and Hermione grabbed Harry's arm and said, "Chavdar."

Harry looked over his shoulder and saw a very angry Headmaster Chavdar storming towards them.

"Well think about it, we must run," Harry said good-naturedly, grabbed Hermione's hand, and bolted.

"Stop!" the headmaster yelled angrily as they rushed towards the door. Unfortunately the doors wouldn't open for them.

Harry sighed and said, "This is going to be painful…if not impossible, but there's no point at not trying." Before Hermione could ask him what he was talking about, he apparated himself, and her, right through the anti-apparation wards.

* * *

Falling to the ground, Hermione groaned and held her head, it was impossible to ignore the splitting headache that was shooting through her skull.

"You just—you just apparated through the wards!" Hermione screamed at Harry when she realized what he had done. Her eyes were wide and there was shock written on her face. Never once had she heard of someone actually apparating through fully functional anti-apparation wards before!

"I guess I did," Harry said with a grin. Even though he was the one who had done the actual apparating, he wasn't fazed at all like he would have been before.

Hermione grabbed onto Harry's arm to steady herself when she asked, "Where are we?"

"Beauxbaton," he said simply.

"You apparated not only through wards, ones that had yet to fall, I might add, in Bulgaria, to France!" she yelled.

"Yup."

Hermione leaned her forehead onto Harry's upper arm and said, "You, Harry James Potter, are something else. Always defying all the laws of magic and making your own."

Harry smiled warmly at her before saying, "Well, shall we speak to Madam Maxime or go straight into their Great Hall?"

"I suggest speaking to the Headmistress first," Hermione said quickly. "She's already helping with the war, so she might be more open-minded then Chavdar was."

"You're the brains," Harry said as they approached the entrance. Like Durmstrang there were no doorknobs, and Harry decided that Hogwarts was the most welcoming school of the bunch from only that one observation. However, there was a large rope in front of the door that led to a large bell above the door.

Hermione reached forwards and grabbed the end and pulled down. The bell gave off a loud, yet sweet sound. A moment later the doors swung open and a short, rather beautiful witch stood at the door with her wand at the ready. Her olive green eyes softened when she saw their uniforms.

"Madam Maxime!" she called out. "Il y a des etuidants de 'Ogwarts ici."

"Oui?" a second, richer voice asked. With a grace that Harry still couldn't get over, Madam Maxime appeared at the door, and stared down at them with a curious gaze. A small smile graced her face as she said, "Ahh Mr. Potter, and Ms. Granger I believe? Please, come in."

They followed the half-giantess through the halls of her magnificently decorated school. It, like Durmstrang, was a smaller school, but their castle was made of an off-white colored stone, and was decorated much more extensively and carefully then Hogwarts was. It appeared that they had arrived between classes, and a few people stared at them as they walked through the halls.

"'Arry!" a happy voice called out. He turned and found himself in a huge hug with a thin, blond girl.

It took him a second to realize who it was before he said, "Hi Gabrielle."

Gabrielle Delacour backed away from him with a wide smile on her face and she asked, "Why are you 'ere?"

"We need to speak to Madam Maxime about something; in fact I better catch up with her and Hermione before I get lost. See you later!" he waved to her and quickly caught up with Hermione.

Once they reached Madam Maxime's giant office, and were seated in rather comfy, pale blue chairs, she stared at them with curious eyes.

"We need help," Hermione said bluntly. "We have information, reliable information that tells us that Voldemort is going to use all his forces to attack Hogwarts soon. We're not sure of when exactly, but its coming. We don't have enough people to defend it though."

"And you wish for me to 'elp," Maxime said after a moment. "And my students. That is asking much Miss Granger."

"I know it is, but if we don't get help, we won't win, and won't that be much worse?" Hermione asked.

"Yes," the Headmistress agreed. "Yes it would." She sat with a perfectly straight posture and thought for a moment. Her eyes looked from Hermione, to Harry and she asked, "You need 'elp?"

"Very much ma'am," Harry said. "We're going to ask the students in our school to fight as well, and we asked Durmstrang, but the Headmaster was a little angry at us so we simply went into the Great Hall and asked the students themselves. We need this help, and if it means going around you, to the students, then we'll do it."

She stared at them and said, "You remind me of Dumbly-door, Mr. Potter: stubborn and willing to go around the rules, but all for the greater good. I will address my pupils tonight, and if they wish to 'elp then I will send them, and if not, then they shall remain 'ere."

"That's fair," Hermione agreed. "Thank you Madam Maxime."

The woman smiled at Hermione and said, "Of course, but tell me (her face went slightly pink), how iz 'Agrid?"

"Sad over Dumbledore's passing, but he's living, and his brother is coming along well," Hermione said.

Madam Maxime nodded and motioned for them to leave. They left her office with smiles on their faces, that had gone much better then they had thought it would.

Now all that was left was to convince the students of Hogwarts to help without letting the spy inside of the school know of their plans.

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

Well, they're talking about the final battle; they're getting ready for it. Only Nagini and Voldemort are left, and we know Draco's true colors now, so what does this all mean? Yes, the end is coming soon.

I am currently attempting to write chapter 31…as I have been for like the past two weeks…and I've only got one page to show for it. I'm really stuck with it. I can't give you much detail, but I bet most of you already know what I'm writing in that chapter. So far it's turned out to be my least favorite in the entire story.

Here are some replies to things mentioned in reviews:

Now many people have had doubts on Ron being able to cast the killing curse. You see I didn't look at it the same way as the Cruciatus curse. Yes there was the anger from Ginny's death, and everything else that's been happening, but that's not how he did it (in this story at least). Ron had the need and desire to use it, he knew he had to, so he pushed all his will and strength into doing so.

I didn't want to make Ron the same as in most stories, where his jealousy gets the best of him so easily. I think that after everything that's happened, it's about time he's grown up. Also his fate is already set in stone when it comes to this fic. I know how HE'S going to end up, and the same for Hermione, but I'm still toying with options for Harry. I know many of you are probably thinking "oh yeah, she'd definitely going to let Harry live"…but I'm not so sure…

This story has 34 planned chapters. There is a chance that another chapter could be added along the way but judging from what I have written now, I highly doubt it.

Having Harry die before destroying Voldemort would be a terrible way to end the real series! I'd probably cry if that happened then burn the book. Of course I'd be the loser who would go back to the book store and buy another copy after that!

Destroying the horcrux with acid was a last minute idea…one that I wasn't really keen on but I couldn't think of any other way that it would fit with my story.

As I've said many times, I'm not REALLY going for realistic when it comes to this fic. I'm just writing something that I think is interesting…and many ideas come from my mind at random so they won't make sense…I promise you all that.

So thank to you everyone who's reviewed, or read this story and hasn't reviewed! Freedomstar, thunder, holimontski, Setoglomper. Harry Potter Girll, pupdawg66, SiriusLeeBlack09, me, and Demonically Angelic Neko88…you guys are the best!

As for hurrying up…I do not like to be pressured into updating! Haha I'm only joking…I update when I get the chance to, plus why would I update all at once? That would just ruin my fun!

**_Krystal Lily Potter_**


	28. The Sacrifice

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Twenty Eight:_** The Sacrifice  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.

**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

* * *

Harry stared at the floor in front of him and sighed before looking up at the people in front of him. All the members of the DA stared at him curiously and with interest. Hermione sat by his right leg, and gave the back of it a small squeeze.

"We," he started. "Are running out of time. Voldemort is coming, and we cannot stop him from reaching here. So, we have two options left, we run and let him win, or we fight back, and even if we lose then at least we can say we didn't run." He chuckled to himself lightly and said, "Yeah, I know, that's a Gryffindor's outlook on it."

"Do you think we can win?" Lavender asked him from where she sat. "Do you think we're ready?" She had her knees hugged close to her chest, and there was an uncomfortable look on the carefree face that Harry was used to seeing her with.

"We have to be," Harry said honestly. "We have to be ready for this." He looked around the room at each person, and for the first time Harry realized that he wasn't the only one that had to grow up early. Everyone else in that room had been pushed past their final years of being teenagers into the unprotected adult world much earlier then they would have been.

"We will be Harry," Dean said confidently. "And even if we're not…we'll still fight our hardest."

Several people around the room muttered in agreement. A small smile appeared on Harry's face as he looked from the confident Gryffindors he had grown up with, to the HUfflepuffs he had come to befriend, to the Ravenclaws who had helped him in class, to the Slytherins that he had misunderstood and overlooked. For the first time in a millennium all four houses in Hogwarts were united together.

"That's all we can ask for," Hermione said to them, breaking Harry away from his thoughts. "That's all we needed to hear."

Harry reached down and gave her shoulder and encouraging squeeze, no matter what would happen, they would face it together, and no matter what the outcome would be, they'd still go down in history as the ones who refused to stand by and allow Voldemort to take over.

* * *

Ron blinked for a moment, groaning as the bright sunlight penetrated his eyes. He tried to rub away the blurriness, and after a moment he was able to see clearly. He was in the hospital wing, and he was in pain.

While pushing himself into a sitting position he winced from pain, and for the first time noticed the scars on his body. Ron tried to remember why he had so many scars, but he couldn't. The last thing he remembered was going down into the Chamber of Secrets, finding the Flute, going to the Shrieking Shack and…

"I destroyed it," Ron said with a grin as he remembered what had happened. "I killed the horcrux. How do you like that, Moldy-Shorts?"

The grin stayed on his face until he remembered the pain he had felt, and crashing through the window as shrapnel hit him. He remembered hearing Harry yell his name and bending over him, looking positively terrified, and he knew that Hermione would have been there moments later. They were probably worried sick, and Hermione was probably furious with him for doing the one thing she told him not to.

He smiled again when he remembered feeling, in his state of unconsciousness, the darkness fading a little. Ron wasn't sure how he had felt it, but he had. The flute and the locket were gone, that only left the snake before Voldemort would be completely mortal!

As Ron thought about everything that happened, he didn't notice Fleur Weasley walking into the room, followed only a few steps by Bill, who wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. What he did hear was his name exclaimed loudly with a French accent, and a moment later Madam Pomfrey seemed to appear at his side, a surprised look on her face.

* * *

"Those are only mobile manikins, Terry," Harry said as he walked past Terry Boot. "You shouldn't feel bad about breaking its legs, because you just might have to do that to a real person. You're doing good Susan, but put a little bit more force behind the incantation. I know this seems brutal, but sometimes to survive you have to fight to hurt. Remember though, if you can, avoid trying to kill anyone. There are worse punishments than death, punishments the Death Eaters deserve to go through."

Ernie Macmillan's face was red as he shot hex after hex at his moving manikin. The DA members had asked for a crash course on dueling, and Harry had certainly given them one. All of them were panting, and many look exhausted, but they continued on. Harry had explained that if they got tired, there wasn't a Death Eater in the world that would allow them to have a break to recuperate. He showed them how to go so long without becoming exhausted, but after a while even fighting large animated dolls was tiring. Ernie stopped fighting and said, "I can't do it anymore." He stumbled backwards and sat on the ground, sweat trickling down his face.

Harry glanced at his watch before saying, "You did good Ernie. In the time you kept fighting someone would have been sure to help you. Remember though, these things are not shooting spells at you. Tomorrow you'll work on fighting a human, without using those advanced curses I taught you today like the cutting curse and the leg-breaking curse. We don't want out allies to be crippled before Voldemort gets here."

A few people winced, and Hermione clicked her tongue with annoyance as she stepped up beside Harry. She too, having known and mastered all of the spells that Harry had been teaching, had been doing rounds around the other students, helping them perfect the spells. Everyone was paying attention to Harry and most were sitting on the ground, looking ready to fall asleep at any moment.

"That's another thing we'll be doing," she said. "You're all going to learn to say Voldemort's name without fear. It a name, nothing more."

There was a silence in the room before Harry's face softened and he said, "You all look dead tired. Go and take a break, get showers, something to eat and just have some free time."

Everyone appeared revealed and all left the room, worried that they might be set back to work if they stayed. Harry and Hermione stood alone for a moment, neither one of them saying anything. The door flew open again and Luna Lovegood floated in.

"Sorry, but Professor McGonagall said that she wished to see you," Luna said and then glided out of the room so quickly they wondered if she had actually been there at all, or if the constant training and work was finally getting to them.

"We best go see her," Hermione said as she tugged gently at Harry's arm. He yawned but nodded his head and followed her, trying not to think about how he'd simply love to fall onto a comfy couch in the Gryffindor Common room and drift to asleep.

* * *

The first thing Harry noticed when he entered the Headmistress's office was that Dumbledore's portrait was sitting with a grim look on his face. There was a sad look in his eyes, one that made Harry inwardly shiver and stare at the portrait with slight fear. He had seen that face before, only moments before Dumbledore had revealed the prophecy to Harry when the old man was still alive.

McGonagall sat behind her desk with her straight posture and the stern face that Harry had come accustom to over the years. She looked from Harry to Hermione and back again before saying, "I had originally called you about good news, and to compliment you for pulling the students together so quickly to prepare for the fight. It appears, however, that Albus has something important to tell you Mr. Potter. He's been quite excited and edgy all day."

Harry's eyes turned to the portrait hanging on the wall. All the other portraits of former Headmaster and Headmistresses looked in the same direction with equal interest, and Fawkes appeared on his stand inside the golden frames of the picture.

"What I am about to tell you Harry, you have to understand, I had thought of telling you a million times before, but this, this I was sure you weren't ready for," the portrait said, it's permanently twinkling blue eyes not meeting Harry's green ones. Harry felt anger flare in him; he knew he had seen that look on Dumbledore's face before.

"What have you been hiding from me now?" he hissed angrily. "Is there a second prophecy that corrects the first? Saying that I'm actually going to lose, no matter what I do. Or is it something else like my parents are still alive and you kept them hidden from me? Well?"

"It's nothing like that Harry, but your accusations are quite understandable after keeping you in the darkness about the prophecy for so long. This, what I discovered, was an accident. Before my physical being last put memories into my portrait I had accidentally created a potion. I was attempting to simply make one for the growing pains in my head that simple potions could not heal, when I accidentally dropped phoenix tears into it. As you know from experience phoenix tears are very powerful, and they completely changed the composition of the potion. Yet before I could rid myself of it, it kept drawing me to it, and I thought, perhaps, there was a use for phoenix tears that we knew not. I was correct. Phoenix tears would make the potion so it wasn't lethal, so I decided to test it out. Imagine my surprise when nothing happened."

Hermione shifted beside Harry, and he shot her a confused look, only to see one mirrored back at him. She bit her lip before asking, "You wanted to tell Harry that there was nothing wrong with a potion you were making?"

The image of Dumbledore chucked at her and said, "Oh no, Miss. Granger, not at all. The effects came later. When I was putting a few memories into my pensive, a bright blue one, brighter than most, went into it. It confused me because I had not intended on putting more then three memories into my pensive that night, yet not only was the color of that one odd, but so was the fact that it was a fourth memory. So I decided to see what it was, and you can imagine my shock when I realized it was simply a memory from years ago, when I was a first year. I had forgotten about the time my friend had locked himself in one of the drawers, which I had found very amusing at the time."

Hermione let out a gasp, causing everyone to turn and look at her. There was an excited look on her face, and her cheeks were flustered slightly as she said, "You made a potion that allowed you to see a suppressed memory! There have been talks about one being made, yet, supposedly no one has done it yet."

"Quite right, as always Miss. Granger," Dumbledore agreed. "And, although the process to making it is long and difficult, I had foreseen the use of it, and make one more batch of it. Of course I tested some of it to make sure that it was the same potion, not just a fluke, and it turned out the same. That potion, I stored behind the bookshelf that I insisted Minerva leave over there, in a scarlet bag. It is for you Harry. It is beyond time, I believe, that you finally found out what happened that night so many years ago."

Harry stared at the bookshelf, and slowly stood up. He made his way over to it, and after feeling out for the potion, he detected a crystal vile behind a rather large encyclopedia. The magic radiating from it was almost illuminated to those who could sense magic.

He walked back over to the desk, and sat in one of the chairs that had been set out for he and Hermione. He sat down and stared at the pale blue potion with hesitant eyes.

McGonagall looked at the potion as well before saying, "You can't ask me to go back and watch his parents die! What next Albus? Force him to go back and see Karmen, Sarah and Vera as well?"

"I've already seen what happened to them," Harry said dully. "We used a powerful spell, one that can only be used once in a lifetime, to view the past. It didn't show me how my parents died though."

"Fate has an odd way of letting these things happen Harry," Dumbledore said lightly. "It allows us to see the future when necessary, to change the past when called for, and to view what we need to at certain times. Harry, you know why you must look at this, not to see how they died…no not at all. You have permission to use my pensive, which I also convinced Minerva to keep."

"I don't want to see that," he said firmly. "I want to see how I survived. That's it. I know that will most likely mean seeing my mum dead, but that's all I want to see."

Hermione gripped his hand tightly and she said, "I'll go with you, into the pensive. No one should have to do this alone."

Harry squeezed her hand back and said, 'You're a good friend Hermione. Let's do this." Before McGonagall or Hermione could protest he uncorked the crystal vile and gulped down the potion in one quick motion. He felt as if his stomach had frozen, and then his mind followed. He shivered, but nodded, saying that he was alright.

With McGoangall's instructions Harry concentrated on the memory he wanted, and put the tip of his wand to his head. As he moved it away a thick, bright blue string appeared. It glowed brightly as Harry placed it into the swirling pensive.

"Ready?" he asked Hermione, who nodded. The two spared a last look at McGonagall before vanishing into the memory.

* * *

Harry opened his eyes as the door flew open and a young woman with dark red hair ran into the room. He knew his mother on sight, and felt his heart constrict. He didn't want to see her die! He didn't want this.

With a flick of her wand the door slammed shut and Lily rushed over to the crib in the corner. Hermione and Harry watched as she tugged a baby Harry out of it, cradling him against her chest. With a desperate look around the room, and a light scream at the bright green light that illuminated the hallway outside the door Lily Potter seemed to come to one conclusion, that there was nowhere to run this time.

She sobbed lightly and said, "I'm sorry baby, I tried to stop him, I tried." She whispered this to the infant Harry, and the older Harry shook at her words. Low, menacing footsteps were heard approaching the door, and it was obvious who was on the other side of the closed door.

Hermione went to say something to Harry when the door to the nursery exploded. She let out a scream and backed up. Her brown eyes widened in horror as, for the first time, Hermione Granger laid eyes on Lord Voldemort.

Voldemort's cold red eyes turned to Lily, and a sadistic smile appeared on his face as he stepped towards her.

"Lily Potter, you certainly have been a thorn in my side. You knew, I assume, when you heard the prophecy, that I had to be coming about your son, and not the Longbottom boy."

Lily didn't say anything to him, but her eyes narrowed slightly.

"Leave my son alone. He didn't do anything wrong."

"Mentioned in a prophecy to defeat me and his mother is a meddling fool who is already challenging the greatest wizard in the wizarding world," Voldemort hissed.

"You are a powerful monster Tom," she growled back finally. "But you're not a great wizard, and you never will be. My son will though, he will defeat you."

Voldemort actually let out a manical laugh that made the hair on Harry's neck stick up. He stared at Lily Potter as if she was a new, deadly bread of snake as he said, "You are muggleborn, but I think that I can spare you. You know much Lily Potter, and you are powerful. Step aside, and allow me to destroy the boy, and you will live without worry of being hunted by my followers."

"No," she said, a panicked look suddenly appearing on her face.

"Crucio."

Lily let out a scream as the curse slashed through her. Baby Harry let out a loud wail, and Hermione soon screamed after. "He's torturing you!" Hermione screamed. "He's torturing your mother and you!"

Harry looked from Hermione, back to the scene, his eyes wide with shock.

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" Lily screamed as she managed to stand up, shaking from the curse that was still befalling her.

"Stand aside, you silly girl…stand aside, now…" Voldemort said angrily as he tried to pry Lily from her son with magic. It was no use though, she wouldn't let go of her baby.

Lily was thrown to the floor, still holding the screaming baby. She stared down at her son, and knew, at that moment, that she would not be able to overpower Voldemort, that she could not escape, so that left one option for her. Turning her head to face he she pleaded, "Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead—"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I'm the one who knows how to kill you! He doesn't! He's only a baby!"

Voldemort seemed almost amused by her pleading as he held out his wand, tired of the woman in front of him. If she wouldn't take his offer and move, then he would do what he had to in order to destroy the child before it could destroy him.

"Not Harry! Please…have mercy…have mercy…" Lily pleaded, her voice growing softer, she seemed to realize that begging the Dark Lord for mercy was getting her no where.

"Avada Kedavra."

Lily let out a scream and turned quickly. The bright green curse collided with her back, causing the older Harry to yell out, and Hermione to let out a loud sob. Lily Potter's body crumpled to the ground, her son still held in her arm.

"Foolish girl," Voldemort hissed as he approached Harry. "She had so much potential…for a mudblood. Avada Kedavra."

They watched as, as if in slow motion, the curse moved towards baby Harry. The baby had stopped crying nad was now staring at Voldemort. Without even realizing what he was doing the younger Harry reached his hand towards the approaching green light.

And, for a moment, a brilliant white shield appeared around him. The curse slammed into the shield, and rebounded to Voldemort. Unfortunately, as it collided with Voldemort's unprotected body, the shield shattered as well, and a bit of the curse hit Harry's forehead, causing him to let out a loud wail.

Voldemort yelled in pain as his soul was torn away from his physical body, which rotted away right in front of them.

* * *

Harry and Hermione gasped as they stumbled out of the pensive. Harry's eyes were wide, and Hermione was shaking badly.

"Are you alright?" McGonagall asked, as she rushed over to them, placing a hand on their shoulders.

It was Hermione who spoke up first. Her voice was shaky as she said, "You shielded it Harry. You made a shield that blocked the killing curse. The little bit that hit you wasn't enough to harm you, but enough to leave a mark…something to show that you were the one the prophecy spoke of."

"So you shielded the curse?" Dumbledore said curiously. "Yes, yes I suppose that would make sense."

"You told me that the power I had, that Voldemort didn't, was love," Harry said, his eyes snapping around to the portrait.

"It is. I had my suspicions, but not confirmation of what happened that night to provide enough proof. The power was locked inside of you all along Harry, but having your mother die for her, the love that was passed from her to you at that moment, unlocked it."

McGonagall say down on her chair with an exhausted appearance as she said, "There are many parents who die for their children every day. Yet those children that are hit with the killing curse, even after their parents died protecting them, still die. Simply saying that you're mother's love was the reason you lived is not good enough. I agree with Albus, you're mother's love didn't protect you directly, but it did unleash the power that allowed you to live."

"I have the ability to block the killing curse in me," Harry whispered while staring at his hands. "I have the solution on how to save so many lives locked within me."

Hermione took his hand and said, "You're powerful Harry, everyone knew it from the beginning. I wish…I wish we could tell Ron what we found out, he was just as curious as we were."

McGoangall perked up slightly and said, "But you can."

"What?" they both asked together.

"That was the original news I asked you to come here for," McGoangall said with a small smile. "Mr. Weasley is awake, and he was asking to see you."

The two stared at McGonagall for only a split second before both of them rushed out her door and down the steps towards the gargoyle.

They sprinted through the halls, heading to the hospital wing.

"Are you alright Harry?" Hermione asked after a moment of quiet.

"I'll live Hermione," he muttered to him. "I always do…"

They got to the hospital wing in record timing, and, ignoring Madam Pomfrey's scandalized glare, threw the doors open with a loud bang.

"It's about time," Ron said from his place on the bed. "I was wondering when you two would come to see me!"

Hermione let out a light scream and tackled Ron into a hug. She squeezed him tightly around the neck as Harry squeezed Ron's shoulder tightly.

At the door of the hospital wing, Sirius Black smiled at them and backed up, allowing the reunited trio to have their reunion.

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

I didn't kill Ron yet, and before anyone freaks at me saying 'so there's a spell and a potion that can be used to see the past?' I do have an answer for that.

The spell, I think I mentioned, can only be used by a group of people once, and the book it's in is one of a kind (if you don't count the translations), so pretty much no one can use that spell…and no one would really want to because there is a possibility that it could backfire and the person could drown (I didn't mention that but yeah…that's what happens!). As for the potion, that wasn't just seeing in the past, that was simply digging a suppressed memory out of the back of the mind, like from when Harry was a baby, or Dumbledore's long past youth years.

Now you all understand where I'm going with the how Harry lived thing, or at least most of you will be beginning to understand. Dumbledore said that the power Harry has that Voldemort doesn't, is his ability to love, and stories say that, with love involved, anything can be accomplished. There we have it, Harry had strong power inside of him, born with it, and it was unleashed when his mother died, so technically someone could say her love for him was the reason Harry lived. I know, it's confusing, but bear with me. As for where the power came from? Well I made Lily powerful, and James powerful, but any parents could be like that, so let's just say it was destiny that he be born with the power.

ALSO, had such a VERY bad case of writer's block on this chapter. I stared at the blank pages just thinking, "Alright, I've got the outline in front of me, but I don't know what to write. Eff I'm pathetic!" There has been a lot of stress on my part right now, with money and all…applying for scholarships and colleges…paying for driver's training…grad pictures…grad ring…prom dress…damn grade twelve is expensive! For all the younger years who may be reading this, have fun with that.

I'm writing the final chapters now and I was so happy with them, but then I got a second idea…one COMPLETELY opposite from what I have written now…so what do you guys think? Should I write the alternet ending as well and post it too? This is completely up to the reviewers!

So thank you to: Harry Potter Girll, thunder, hash-hash, ollllly, JDZ, The Mysterious Traveller, Demonically Angelic Neko88, FreedomStar and holimontski for reviewing!

I don't have much to point out, the only subject that really caught my attention was the point of Draco. I don't believe that any person is black or white in cases, the Draco I have will prove to be an arrogant self-centered brat, but still on the light side. He and Harry will never actually be friends…as for being forgiven so fast…with the final battle so close Harry can't really be picky with the people who want to help him, can he?

Oh and hash-hash, one part of your review is right on track…but that doesn't tell much, does it?

**_Krystal Lily Potter _**


	29. The Truth

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Twenty Nine:_** The Truth  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

* * *

Curses and spells flew back and fourth wildly. People dodged them, repelled them, cancelled them out, and others were hit by them. No deadly or extremely harmful curses were thrown though, but there were some strong and nasty ones.

Harry weaved in and out of the curses, blocking them with vicious spells in return, his quick dodging, and strong shields. He glanced over and saw that Hermione was going in and out of the crowds, just like he was.

"Potter!"

Everyone in the enlarged room stopped moving and turned to face the door. Professor McGonagall stared around the room and repeated, "Harry Potter, come here."

Harry moved around the now still people that were in the room of requirement and joined the headmistress in the corridor, no one inside the room moved an inch.

"What exactly" she asked. "Is going on?"

"You see ma'am," Harry said with an innocent grin. "I thought it would be a good idea to let all hell break lose and tell everyone that they need to defend themselves, so everyone's fighting everyone else. That is how it will be in the final fight, I'm betting that at least."

Her stern eyes softened as she said, "Yes, I understand the utmost importance behind what you're doing, and I support it, but the other professors were wondering where most of the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh years were. The classrooms are very empty."

"I know, but once this is over everyone can just…go back to semi-normal," Harry said with a shrug. "It'll never be completely normal, I know that, but we have to try. We need to win."

McGonagall smiled at him and said, "Your parents would be proud of you, Harry."

Harry stared at his feet, the scene between his mother and Voldemort flashing through his mind. Behind the closed door he could hear the massive duel beginning again, and he felt a twinge of pride pass through him. His parents might be proud of whom he was, but he was proud of how well everyone else was handling the war that they were thrown into.

"Mr. Weasley has been asking to see you," she added before walking away. "And he said he wanted to talk to you without Miss. Granger present."

Harry looked at Professor McGonagall for a split second before slowly walking towards the hospital wing, the sounds of dueling fading away as he walked away.

* * *

A single man ran through the darkened forest. His robes were being torn from the sharp, twisted branches of the trees, and his knees bled from a few unexpected and undignified falls he had taken. That wasn't on his mind at the moment though, he had a mission, and he needed to get to his destination before it was too late.

Far behind him there were yells of triumph from a large camp, a man with smug, scarlet eyes overseeing the proceedings.

* * *

Ron picked at the blanket covering him. He had managed to allow Madam Pomfrey to let him change back into his every day clothes instead of his pajamas, and he was even aloud to limp around the hospital wing, but going beyond that was as forbidden as walking into the forest.

He was bored out of his mind; he just wanted something to do. When Professor McGonagall had visited him earlier he had requested that she bring Harry to see him as Ron had decided it was time to talk about some very serious issues that Harry had been blindly ignoring.

With so much free time on his hands Ron had taken to thinking about everything that happened over the course of the year. He thought of everything they had done, everything they had accomplished…and everything that he had accomplished. A while ago he compared himself to Harry and Hermione for everything, but he realized that he was an important part of the team, no matter how much he had doubted it at first. He was brilliant with strategy, and his hunches were usually dead on, and if not they were very close. Harry always said to go with his gut, and it was something that Ron had realized he was very good at doing. Ron knew he had grown up over the past year, he could feel it within himself. There was no anger or blind jealousy towards Harry, that had completely vanished all together, and there was a new found sense of responsibility hanging over him. One he just couldn't pry off. He had something to talk to Harry about, something very important, and he knew now was the time to do it before it was too late.

The door quietly opened and closed, and a roughed up looking Harry walked towards his friend's bed. He threw himself in the chair beside an amused looking Ron before snapping, "What?"

"You look like you've been mobbed by a pack of raving groupies."

Harry rolled his eyes and said, "No, that hasn't happened to me yet, but I'm surprised Voldemort hasn't tried it yet, I mean Death Eaters can be detected coming into Hogwarts, and Unforgivable Curses are identifiable, but who would suspect a bunch of insane girls to maul me?"

Ron chuckled before saying, "Don't let it go to your head, you're terrible with girls anyway."

"Says you," Harry replied with a snort. "How long were you snogging Lavender for the sake of snogging, and how long were you blindly oblivious of Hermione?"

They had come to the subject that Ron wanted to talk about. He knew it might not be his place, but he could see all the pieces on the board laid out in front of him, and he knew neither Harry nor Hermione were going to make a move in the right direction without his guidance. After all, they both _were_ terrible at chess.

"Yeah…about that, I have to talk to you about her," Ron said slowly.

"You're planning on asking her out?" Harry asked, with a barely visible bitter tone to his voice, but his friend caught it.

"Jealous?"

Harry blinked. "What? No! Why would I be?"

"Because you like Hermione," Ron said knowingly.

A light tint of a blush appeared on Harry's face as he said, "You've got it all wrong Ron. She's my best female friend, that's all. You and her…well…everyone knows that's how it's going to be…"

"Since when have you believed anything that came out of a crystal ball?"

"Well there were two prophecies made that I've come to realize were true."

"That's not my point. People can say what they want, Hermione and I are never getting together. We talked about it, and both of us realized that it would never work. We argue far too much, and with us, opposites do not attract," Ron said in a definite tone. "Besides, I'm not good enough for her."

Harry stared at him for a moment before saying, "Then who is?"

"You are?"

"Me?"

Ron rolled his eyes and said, "Well personally I don't think so, I think you're a pretty dumb bloke, but for some strange reason she does seem to think that you are good enough."

Thick silence hung in the air for a moment before Ron added, "You should tell her."

"I won't lie to her Ron," Harry said after a moment. "I won't lie and say that everything will be alright, that in the end I'll come back. I won't."

"So that's why you dumped my sister," Ron said suddenly. "You don't think you're going to live through this."

"How can I? Voldemort has at least fifty years more experience than I do. I don't want to hurt Hermione anymore then I know I'm going to," Harry said. "I'm not coming back, Ron. I'm—"

BAM!

Harry, now in an undignified position on the floor, held his hand to his cheeks with a dazed look on his face. Ron was glaring at him, with his fist clenched from the punch he had given his friend. Harry winced as he moved his hand before yelling, "What was that for?!"

"For being a bloody git!" Ron yelled back. "I don't get you Harry, what you're saying doesn't make since, none of it! Just tell her…"

"Let's pretend for a moment that she did like me," Harry snapped. "And I told her, and then I go off and die. What do you think would happen? It's best just to keep anything that's inside me…inside."

"If that happens," Ron replied. "Then I'll tell her about this conversation. It would break her heart even more to know that you loved her too but wouldn't say anything! I don't want her hurt either, but she's strong. Just tell her Harry."

Harry stared at Ron for a moment with an odd look. He didn't say anything as he turned and quietly walked out of the room.

Ron stared at his retreating from with an annoyed look on his face, Harry was being completely stupid. Didn't he see that if he died without saying anything he might as well stab Hermione through the heart as well?

With that disgruntled thought Ron sat back down on his bed as he heard Madam Pomfrey coming out of her office, oblivious to the brawl that had just occurred in her hospital wing.

* * *

Hermione stretched out on a sofa in the room of requirement. She had sent everyone else on their way earlier and was the only one left in the room. As much as she tried she could not concentrate on the spell book in front of her. She had been through all her books a million times, and many of the spells she was looking at she already knew, but that wasn't the reason she couldn't concentrate.

Word had come in that Voldemort's forces were pulling out of the areas they were in and simply vanishing. He was pulling all of his forces together for one large strike.

The door open, and without turning her eyes up she knew it was Harry. He sat down on the chair beside the couch she was on, but he didn't say anything to her.

After a moment of staring at the same word she looked up and saw that he was staring at her with his unnerving emerald eyes. There was an odd look behind them, one of pain mixed with something else.

Hermione sat up straight and said, "Are you ok, Harry?"

Harry didn't answer her; he just continued staring at her. He knew that Ron was right, that he did have feelings for his best female friend, but every time he looked at her he felt dread. He couldn't let her become more of a target by loving him, and he didn't want to hurt her anymore then he already would by dying. Harry didn't know how to explain everything to her though.

"Harry?" Hermione said again as she moved from the couch and sat on the arm of the chair. He finally broke his dazed stare before looking at the floor.

"Everyone close to me, every one that I love dies, Hermione. I know I'm not just being paranoid, because when my mum stood up to Voldemort everyone that was helping her was killed brutally, and I don't want the same to happen to you," he managed to whisper.

"Harry, we've been over this," she said stubbornly. "Ron and I insisted on coming with you. Our time to back out is long gone. Besides, do you think I would have been any less of a target if I wasn't friends with you? I'm a muggleborn know-it-all who slapped Draco Malfoy in the face in third year, I'm a target anyway. And Ron, to the Purebloods his family is known as blood-traitors, there was no way he'd be spared either. Destiny is what brought the three of us together, and nothing but destiny is going to take us apart."

Harry clasped her hand tightly before saying, "What if that was the problem? What if you thought that destiny was going to take you away from the one thing you really wanted, and you wanted to protect that person from the pain, but still you wanted to tell them how you felt, just so they would know."

"I'd say do it," Hermione replied after a moment. "Throw caution to wind, and tell the person how you feel about them. Remember what we found out, Harry? Your magic is activated by love, the power Voldemort knows not. So tap into it."

Harry stared at her before saying, "I was talking to Ron, and he told me something…interesting…terrifying really."

"What did he tell you?"

"The same thing you just told me, but I yelled at him, said he was wrong, and I didn't make sense either. Hermione, I—"

A loud scream was heard from the Great Hall. It was amplified, obviously from a spell. It was a scream mixed with surprise and terror. That could only mean one thing: something or someone unwanted had entered Hogwarts.

Harry and Hermione shared a terrified look for a moment before Hermione started to lead the way out of the room.

Harry watched her go, and he felt his heart clench a little bit at every step she took. He didn't know what had entered the school grounds, but it was possible that it was beginning, that Voldemort's final strike on Hogwarts was here.

He took a quick step forward and grabbed her arm. She turned to face him and ask what was wrong, but before Hermione could utter a single syllable Harry leaned down and kissed her.

Hermione's eyes widened with surprise, and before she could kiss him back Harry pulled away from her and whispered, "Now you know." He quickly walked past her an out of the room, a light blush on his face.

Hermione turned beat red, both from her racing blood and anger. How dare he kiss her and then leave before she could say anything? Her eyes narrowed and she walked after him. They would find out what was happening for now, but later she would corner him and demand a better explanation then 'now you know'.

As Hermione walked out of the room a small smile appeared on her face as she brushed her hands over her lips.

* * *

Minerva McGonagall gaped at the figure in front of her. How dare he return after what he had done? How dare he think that he was welcome at Hogwarts?

Her steady wand continued to stay aimed at the spot over his heart, but neither said anything. There was a thick, uncomfortable silence in the air, one that was broken as two people came tearing into the hallway.

Harry heard Hermione gasp in shock from behind him, and his own surprised look was evident. The person in front of him looked like he had been sent through hell and back, but there was still no denying who he was.

Severus Snape had returned to Hogwarts.

Snape looked over at the two as they slowly approached. All of the teachers who had their wands aimed carefully at him watched the two former students. The students were gathering on the staircases and in the corridors, watching with both interest and disgust when they saw who it was.

Harry reached behind him and squeezed Hermione's arm. She looked up at the back of his head, but he didn't give any another motions. Still she somehow knew what he was trying to say, how he wanted her to stay beside McGonagall and out of harms way.

Much to everyone's surprise Harry positioned himself between Snape and McGonagall's wand. She was about to voice her disapproval when Harry began talking.

"I never understood…I never got why Dumbledore trusted you. Then I found out that _you_ were the one who told Voldemort the first part of the prophecy, that you were the one who gave him those first two lines that made him go after my parents. Then you came to Dumbledore, asking for redemption, and when I heard that I couldn't believe that he believed you. You hated my father; you wouldn't have cared if he was dead or not, and to you my mother was only a muggle-born who didn't deserve magic. I never saw any reason for Dumbledore to trust you in that, no one did."

Snape didn't say anything as Harry spoke. Harry felt him try to tap into his mind to see where the rant was going, and Harry had to avoid smirking as Snape met the solid walls he had built around his mind. Looking over the man's shoulder he saw Sirius and Remus standing side by side, wands at the ready, and both were glaring at Snape.

"That was only part of the reason though," Harry said suddenly. "That was only part of the reason Dumbledore trusted you. There was the fact that you came to him, admitting all you had done, but the second part, was the fact that you didn't want to hurt people…you didn't want them to suffer. Dumbledore found that out, and offered you a way out of being a true Death Eater by being a spy. You accepted it so that you could stay ahead of the game, and possibly stop another horrible murder like what happened to my Aunt Karmen, didn't you?"

"Karmen?" Sirius asked with surprise, his wand lowering a millimeter at the name of his best friend's sister.

"Karmen was tortured," Harry said slowly. "Tortured by that monster in the Riddle house. He tied her up with razor wires like he did with me, and he cut her, he stabbed her _and_ he raped her. She escaped though, and the Death Eaters, Malfoy and Pettigrew, used the torturing and cutting curses on her. She got away, and you found her. She was dying, there was nothing that could be done and you both knew it. Karmen begged you to kill her with Avada Kedavra so that she wouldn't suffer, she didn't want to die slowly and in pain. You gave you what she wanted; you showed her mercy instead of watching her die in pain like any other Death Eater would. Dumbledore found you seconds after that. That's why he trusted you so much, isn't it Snape?"

"I don't know how you know that," Snape said suddenly, his voice hoarse and dry. "But I swore I'd help get rid of the Dark Lord so that no one would have to live through such a thing ever again."

"Yet you killed him!" one of the students who had been listening screamed. "You killed Dumbledore!" A ripple of agreement went through the crowd that was still gathering.

"I was there," Harry said. "I was there when you killed him Snape. I thought he was begging you to help him, but he wasn't, was he? He was begging you to kill him, just like Karmen had years before. That's why you appeared to hate him so much, not only were you killing your mentor, but it gave you so many flashbacks to the day you had to…assist my aunt. You knew your actions would make you into a wanted murderer…that with those actions you would lose the rest of your life."

A few of the other teachers were lowering there wands, and Harry saw McGonagall shaking slightly out of the corner of his eye. Hermione had vanished, but there was no time to worry as she reappeared with Draco Malfoy close behind.

"What is he doing here?" Draco asked with surprise when he saw Snape. "He's a Death Eater."

"We thought you were too," Hermione said while rolling her eyes. "Snape, you told Dumbledore about the Unbreakable Vow you made with Narcissa Malfoy to complete Draco's mission if he couldn't…and that mission was to kill Dumbledore. If you didn't do that, then you would die from the vow, and Dumbledore didn't want that, for some reason. So he told you, that if the time came, to kill him, didn't he?"

"Yes, he did," Snape agreed. Slowly he reached into his pocket, and everyone tensed again. McGonagall had confiscated his wand, yet anything else could be inside his robes. He carefully pulled out an envelope and said, "You know his writing (he nodded to Minerva, showing that he was speaking to her), you could tell if this was a forgery or not. This was the exact instructions he wrote out and made me sign and that was why I killed him. I did not come back for redemption, no I committed a crime and I will turn myself in for it this time, like I had wanted to when Karmen Potter died, but I did come back for the final part of my agreement with Albus, the reason he wanted me to stay alive."

Everyone watched as the former Potion's master looked at Harry and said, "I imagine Draco told you what creatures and how many Death Eaters are in the army, but I can tell you when he's going to attack, where he's going to be coming from, and I can tell you how to get the younger years out of the school without detection, something that Albus had recently discovered before his death."

Ripples of whispers when through the silent hall before Tonks stepped forward and said, "How much time do we have?"

"Almost none."

* * *

Snape had explained how to get out of Hogwarts, how there were passages that led under the lake and far out into the forest. He explained how magic made it impossible for the Death Eaters to find where the entrance in the forest was, and how Dumbledore believed that those were originally going to be second entrances to the Chamber of Secrets.

He had also told them that Voldemort's forces were already marching through the Forbidden Forest.

McGonagall had quickly rushed out to send word to the Ministry, and Hermione contacted Beauxbaton and a very angry Durmstrang. No one had yet to show up from anywhere though, not even the Ministry. The only ones who managed to get the courage to come to the school, directly into the line of fire, were the remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix.

Harry had gathered up the DA and told them to be ready. The older students were preparing for the upcoming fight, and several teachers were forcing the younger children out of the school through the secret passages.

Harry was heading up to the hospital wing when he heard an angry yell, and a loud bang. He rushed to where the sound had come from and found himself staring at the scene with confusion. Peeves had made an appearance for the first time since Harry had returned, and he had trapped Professor Babbling in a large vase.

"Peeves!" he yelled angrily and helped the teacher out. When he did a letter fell out of her hand, and Harry saw only the first two words. My Master…

"You're the traitor," he whispered before looking up at her. "You're the bloody traitor!"

Quicker than he could blink Babbling muttered a spell, and he was thrown back into a wall. She tried to run, but a spell hit her and she fell to the floor. Harry looked up and saw Ron Weasley limp into view, looking quite proud of himself and much better than the last time Harry had seen him.

"Thanks," Harry muttered. "She's the traitor."

"So I heard you yell," Ron said with a small grin. "What do we do with her?"

"Give her to McGonagall for now," Harry said angrily. "She was trying to send a note to Voldemort, telling him of Snape and Malfoy being here." He nodded to the piece of paper on the floor as he pulled himself up. He hissed slightly from pain as he felt the gash in his arm from where he fell.

Peeves had vanished, but a moment later he flew past them, crackling with laughter. Flich appeared, grumbling about a stupid poltergeist, when he saw the teacher on the floor. His face went pink, but before Flich could explode Ron said, "Babbling's the traitor."

"Well what are you standing there for, boy?" Flich yelled suddenly while turning to Harry. "Go get McGonagall!"

Harry spared only a small glance at Flich as he tore down the corridor.

* * *

Hermione watched as Tonks and Remus left to attend to the traitor that had attacked Harry. Her friend looked exhausted, and the blood on his arm made her wince. The sun had already set, yet not a single person slept. They were all trying to get ready for Voldemort's approaching army.

Harry glanced at her, and was about to walk away when she grabbed his arm and dragged him into an empty classroom.

"Hermione," he whispered. "We don't have time for this."

"I know," she replied. "But this might be the last time. I have to know Harry, why did you kiss me earlier? Please just tell me."

Harry stared at her for a moment, before biting his lip and saying, "I don't want to hurt your anymore if I die."

"It'll hurt me worse if I never know."

He turned away from her slightly and said, "Hermione, I don't know how it happened, I don't even remember realizing it, but I love you, I really do. You have no idea how much I want to lock you away somewhere so that you won't fight, but I know that would make you hate me. Do you remember my vision, the one where I thought I saw you die (she nodded slightly)? The reason I thought it was you, and not Ginny, was because Bellatrix said 'the one I care about most', and I care about you more than anyone else. I'm—I'm sorry I'm only telling you this now…but no other time seemed right. Neither does now, actually."

Hermione took a step towards him, and forced him to look at her. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she said, "I love you too Harry, I really do. Ron was the one who pointed out how much I cared for you; I was blind to it before, but I can't _not_ see it now though. I don't care if this is the last time we'll get a chance to say this, but I want you to know that it's still worth it. I love you."

Harry had to squeeze his eyes shut for a moment before he hugged her tightly. He held her as if she would vanish if he let go. Hermione was no better though, she didn't want to let go as much as he did.

Harry kissed her again and this time she got to kiss him back. They stayed like that until they heard a loud crashing from outside the castle. Neither of them needed to look out the window as they let go of each other. From the amount of footsteps, yells, and various other sounds they heard, they knew it was time, Voldemort was just outside the castle barriers.

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

Yet again another rushed, choppy, and poorly written chapter. Seriously though, these chapters of the story have been my least favorite ones…building up to the battle scene…which I also find terribly awful as of now. I'm sorry for the choppyness…and just in general terrible-ness of the story now, but I just can't seem to get my mind into the whole 'final battle' writing mood. Maybe if I write another story after this I should just do one based on love lives or something…that's something I've never done before.

Everything with Snape seems rushed, and I'm sorry for that. Originally I had something really big and profound planned out for him, but I forgot what it was and I didn't write it down before hand.

Hint to all authors: IF YOU HAVE AN IDEA, WRITE IT DOWN BEFORE YOU FORGET IT!

Anyways, yes they seemed to have trusted Malfoy and Snape MUCH too easily…even I'll admit that. But I have terrible writer's block and I just can't seem to get anything written recently. BUT I have some good news for you. The last few chapters of the story have been completed…well except for chapter thirty one (yes I know I'm weird because I didn't write it in order). I've also decided to go with my original ending instead of both because I've decided the second ending could be used for another story (if I make another one). Besides, to do the alternate ending I'd have to rewrite more then just one chapter.

As always, thank you to: Freedomstar, lilypotterfan, thunder, JDZ, SiriusLeeBlack09, carpedium, Harry Potter Girll, holimontski, Demonically Angelic Neko88, and Julie Merchant for reviewing!

I think there is a good possibility that, in the canon, the scar COULD actually be a horcrux, but you never know. It's JKR's world and we just have to see what's going to happening in the canon, but there is NO scar horcrux in my story.

When I say 'Ron's not dead, yet' I say that to leave it open for change. He might die, he might not, I'm the only one who knows how that's going to end up.

Well that's all I have to say!  
**_  
Krystal Lily Potter _**


	30. Darkness and Light

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Thirty:_** Darkness and Light  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.  
**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

If I got the time zones wrong can someone please correct me? The book I'm looking out if is kind of hard to read. It's only a small mention though, so I doubt most people will notice.

* * *

In Ottawa, the capital of Canada, life seemed to be as it always was, yet there was a cold chill in the air. Something bad was going to happen; all of the aware citizens could all feel it coming.

The Prime Minister stared out the window and over parliament hill. His old face held no emotion as he awaited his visitor, but underneath there was a nervousness that wouldn't stop eating at him.

The sound of his fire growing rapidly and then only the sound of someone coughing was heard.

"You're late Mr. Richardson," the Prime Minister said as he turned and stared at the man behind him. The man he was speaking to, Richardson, was much younger than he was, but the man was still a strong thinker, and enjoyed taking on challenges. On this night though, the young man's face was lined with worry.

"I've received word from my counterpart in England," Richardson said after a moment. "From Scimgeour, and he received word from the school there, Hogwarts, that Voldemort was planning an attack on the school. On children! He's going to strike, and bit by bit he's going to take over…"

"This Voldemort fellow," the muggle Minister said. "Sounds a lot like Hitler, how he's prosecuting these…muggleborns, if I'm correct in the term."

"Yes," Richardson said with a nod. "I needed to warn you though; magic has been getting weak lately."

"Weak?"

"Yes, it's been…vanishing…no one knows why. Things have been happening; witches and wizards have been losing their powers for no reason at all. None of it makes sense, and there are no explanations for it, as much as we'd love to blame it on Voldemort, but how could he do that? I just thought you should know, that if worse comes to worse over there, then there is a good chance that the wizarding world will be exposed to muggles, and it will cause mass confusion and panic, especially from the church goers."

The Prime Minister sat down at his desk and asked, "Has the President of the United States been informed?"

"Yes," Richardson replied. "All the magical leaders are informing their muggle counter parts as we speak."

The Prime Minister was about to speak, but as the clocks in Ottawa struck 8:00 o'clock a loud smashing sound was heard. Both men hurried to the window and watched as the sky began cracking open. The cracks were a brilliant white light, and were still visible around the pieces that fell towards the ground. People outside screamed with terror and tried to run away from the falling magic, but it simply vanished before hitting the ground.

"We were afraid of this," Richardson muttered while staring at the scene with wide eyes.

"What is this?" the Prime Minister of Canada snapped at him. "What's happening?"

"The wards are falling," Richardson said. "Everything magical is being exposed to the eyes of muggles. This is what I came to warn you about, but we didn't think it would happen this soon."

The Prime Minister watched, feeling helpless as he watched the cracks in the sky and the falling magic go on for miles.

In Washington, D.C. the President of the United States watched the same incident with a terrified expression. All over the world, from Mexico, to Iraq, to India, to China, to Japan, to Russia, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Egypt, Madagascar, Austrailia, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, France, Bulgaria, and every other country, the magical and muggle leaders stood together watching the wards fall, none of them knowing what to do.

In London, Big Ben struck midnight as the wards snapped and fell, revealing the Ministry, Diagon Alley, and various other wizarding homes.

The Muggle Prime Minister of Britain, and Rufus Scimgeour watched together as the wards fell.

"You have magic!" the Minister shouted. "Stop this!"

"Some magic," Scimgeour said. "Cannot be controlled and cannot be tracked. We knew it was a matter of time before all of the wards fell, but not this soon. You had best get a speech together to try and explain this."

"How am I supposed to explain this? None of my staff or other cabinet ministers even knows about it!" the Minister said angrily.

Scimegeour sighed before saying, "Tell them what you know, and then I will try to make an appearance, but there are more important issues at hand."

"More important issues? Like what?"

"You-Know-Who plans on striking Hogwarts, we received word from the Headmistress that the army is approaching the school."

"Children, why is he going after the children?"

Scimegeour stared at the minister for a moment before saying, "What better way to destroy the future, than to destroy the ones who will be the leaders in the future."

The old wizard left, leaving the Prime Minister on his own, dreading what he would tell the press.

At the same time all this was happening, at Hogwarts, Voldemort's army had finally passed from the Forbidden Forest, into the Hogwarts grounds.

* * *

"Hurry!" Hermione screamed to the last of the straggling first years. "Follow the person in front of you into the passage!" They were all terrified, and wide spread panic seemed to engulf the younger students at the sounds of wards shattering. The ones around Hogwarts fell quickly, as they were only temporary ones, but the magic in the sky seemed to go on forever. No one had ever realized exactly how much of the world was warded until this happened.

"Hermione!"

She stopped running and turned to see Ron heading towards her. He still had a bit of a limp to him, but he was moving rather quickly.

"Ron, what are you doing here? You're not strong enough to fight!" she said.

Ron scowled and said, "That's what Harry told me when I saw him earlier, and I'm not going to accept that. I've been in this since first year Hermione, you two can't tell me just to back off."

Hermione bit her lip before saying, "Can you make sure the first years get through the passage safely. I'll tell Harry that you went with them for protection…but…"

"If I just happen to turn around and come back," Ron interrupted her. "Then you're not at blame. When I get back you two had better still be alive."

The two stood together, listening to the yells of the Death Eaters as they charged the school.

"We will be, don't worry," Hermione said before wheeling around and running in the opposite direction, towards the Great Hall.

Ron watched her for a moment before ushering the last of the first, second and third years down the corridor and to the secret passages below.

* * *

Helen Granger looked up into the sky, her deep brown eyes widening as she saw glowing cracks cover the sky. It didn't take her long to realize that this had something to do with magic, her daughter was a witch after all.

"What was that?" Robert Granger asked as he appeared beside his wife. They both watched from the patio as the glowing pieces fell to the ground, vanishing in front of them. "What on Earth is going on?"

"Magic," Helen whispered. "Something's wrong. I hope Hermione is alright."

Robert frowned before saying, "She doesn't seem to think that we have any right to know what's going on in her life Helen. She shows up at the train station, telling us that she's going to spend time at her friends' house this summer, then is going to a wedding, and then we think she's back in school, but when we write a letter to the Headmistress we get a reply saying that Hermione hasn't been seen since summer…that she's running around somewhere with those two _boys_."

"I'm sure she had a good reason," Helen replied. "She's a bright girl, Robert, we both know that. She wouldn't have run off _without_ a good reason."

"You suppose this has something to do with that good reason?" Robert asked while pointing at the sky.

Helen looked up and said, "I hope not. I don't know why, but I'm sure something bad is happening. And although I wish it weren't true, I just know that our baby girl is in the middle of it all…and there's nothing we can do to help."

Helen and Robert Granger silently watched the sky, unaware of what was happening at Hogwarts at that moment.

* * *

Molly Weasley was in a fierce panic. They had gotten word from Minerva earlier to round up as many Order members as they could, and to head to Hogwarts. Unfortunately for the Weasleys, rounding up Order members meant her entire family.

"I will fight!" a female voice growled from in the room beside her. "You cannot stop me Bill. This iz what I want."

"You want to go head first into war?" Bill growled at Fleur.

"I want to 'elp. If there iz a reason to fight I will. I am not a delicate little flower Bill, despite my name."

Molly looked through the door, her eyes moving from Bill to Fleur and back again. A year ago she would have been dancing at the sight of them arguing, but she just couldn't do it anymore. There was a chance that any of them could come back alive.

"Mum?"

She turned to see Fred and George staring at her with identical worried faces.

"Charlie is on his way here, and dad's coming home," George said to her.

"We'll all be fine mum," Fred said as he put a hand on her shoulder. "All of us will."

Molly let out a strangled sob as she took a step towards Fred and embraced him in a tight hug, before pulling George into the embrace as well. It was certainly a sight to see when Arthur and Charlie showed up later on.

* * *

Bealltrix inhaled deeply as she walked up the steps to the school. She would never forget this night, and how it would be the end of magical impurity.

With a dramatic push, the doors flew open. She expected to hear the children screaming with terror in the distance as they tried to hide in their common rooms, and she expected to be faced with teachers and aurors, but much to her surprise, as well as the rest of the Death Eaters with her, there was no one in sight.

Cautiously Bellatrix led the way into the castle, straining to hear any signs of life, but the old monument seemed to be devoid of life.

"I don't understand," someone whispered behind her.

Bellatrix silently lit the end of her wand, illuminating the dark corridor a little better. There was no sign of mass panic, or a rush to get out of the school, everything appeared normal, aside from the lack of life, even at midnight.

"Something's not right here," her husband said. "Not right at all."

She was about to snap at him, but held her tongue. She listened carefully as a voice reached her ears.

"_Hush, hush, you'll hear the rain, as it gently patters at your window pane. It makes your world seem brighter, your heart will feel lighter, so hush and you'll hear the world sign it's song."_

Bealltrix listened to the singing. It was mournful and depressing, almost as if those that the Death Eaters had killed were singing to their murderers. Wand at the ready, the Death Eaters followed the sound until they were in front of the Great Hall.

"_You can hear the songs of the air, the sweet sounds of music are heard everywhere. It makes the world seem magic, your heart won't feel tragic, so hush and you'll be on the wings of a dream." _

Keeping her appearance as the leader of the group that went to scout out the castle, Bellatrix pushed those doors open too, and what she saw surprised her to no end.

There was a single woman sitting in the middle of the hall. There was a doll in her arms, and her curly blond hair hid her face as she rocked back and fourth, singing the song over and over again.

The Death Eaters took a step into the Great Hall, and the singing stopped. The woman didn't look up, not until she said, "My baby isn't here anymore, you took her from me Bellatrix, you killed my baby."

The dark haired woman stared as the blond stood up, dropping the doll to her feet. Slowly the woman looked up and said, "And you're going to die for it."

Shock ran through the evil witch's entire body as she realized who she was looking at. The girlfriend of her muggle-loving cousin, the witch she thought was dead for years: Alyssa Bones.

The Death Eaters all raised their wands, but when they did the doors to the Great Hall slammed shut. Two men stood by the doors, and there were many others that seemed to walk out of the shadows in the room.

"Remember me?" Sirius asked as he stepped forwards. "Thought you could get away again, did you Trixie? Guess what? We're not going to stand for it anymore!"

The people in the room walked towards the Death Eaters, their wands held out in front of them.

* * *

"Something's not right about this," Lucius Malfoy hissed. "They've been gone too long."

"They probably met a couple teachers and a few idiotic children," Fenrir Greyback growled. "Oh I can't wait to sink my teeth into their flesh."

None of the Death Eaters paid attention, they didn't notice the small group of students high above them, watching front a tower.

"Fire," Luna Lovegood said quickly. The Death Eaters standing closets to the castle were struck with various spells, causing the rest of them to start retreating.

"It's only a group of kids!" Malfoy yelled. "Stop running like a bunch of pathetic muggles!"

The Death Eaters turned to fight, but the teenagers of the top of the tower had vanished. The Death Eaters looked around with confusion until a bone-breaker curse flew out of no where, slamming into one of their own.

The man yelled in pain and stumbled to the ground, only to be hit with several stunning curses at the same time.

"Signal to the other groups!" Lucius yelled. "There are little muggle lovers hiding here somewhere. The more of us searching, the faster we'll find them!"

A crunch sound was heard behind him, and Lucius wheeled around to find himself face to face with Severus Snape.

"Snape," Fenrir said while taking a step forward. "Where have you been?"

Snape's black, emotionless eyes looked up at the men in front of him and he said, "Preparing."

"Preparing for what?" someone asked.

The dark haired man pulled out his wand, and with a silent, quick motion, he struck the Death Eater who questioned him before saying, "Preparing the school for the cowardice of the Lord's followers."

"Traitor!" Lucius yelled. "Attack him!"

The second those words left his mouth spells started flying, but not from the people he had been speaking to. While Snape had been the object of attention for the Death Eaters, a group of students had snuck up behind the men and woman, giving them ample time and space to attack without notice.

The Death Eaters didn't know which way to turn. Their group of about twenty people was completely surrounded by students who weren't holding back. They shot hexes, curses and some nasty jinxes, and blocked anything that might have missed a target and almost hit them instead.

Lucius ducked as he started fighting back. It puzzled him to no end about how they could be so organized and ready for the attack, even when Snape's warning of the oncoming army. Unless someone else had gotten to them first and warned them farther ahead than anyone anticipated.

* * *

"What the hell are we doing?"

"Shhh."

"No really, what the hell is going on?"

Harry turned around and gave Draco an annoyed look before asking, "What do you mean what's going on? War's going on, that's what!"

"Yeah, but why are we all split into small groups crawling and sneaking around everywhere," Draco asked. "The Death Eaters have all split into small groups so we should just right out attack them."

"Haven't you ever heard of divide and conquer?" Harry asked. "That's what they're trying to do, and we're two steps ahead of them."

"Would you two please be quiet?" Hermione asked, and screamed as Harry pulled her to the ground as a curse flew over their heads.

"There's some down by the lake!" someone yelled.

"Shit," Harry muttered. "Well Malfoy, looks like we're going with your idea now."

"Right on," Malfoy said as he, and about ten other people rushed up the bank and met with the Death Eaters. Harry grabbed Hermione's hand and led her through the destruction.

Hermione threw a bone-breaking curse at the Death Eater who charged at them. The man yelled in pain as he stumbled to the ground, but was quickly enough to fire a blood red hex at them.

Harry and Hermione let go of each other and dodged to opposite sides of the field.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed as she stood up and looked around. Crabbe senior appeared in front of her, so she had no time to think of her friend as she started fighting the overly large man.

Harry quickly sent a signal of bright green sparks into the air. Hedwig flew out of a nearby tree at that and flew into the window of the Great Hall.

In the Great Hall, Neville Longbottom looked up and saw the snowy owl flying in circles overhead. Quickly he shot bright green sparks into the air, and everyone knew what had happened. The plan for taking out the Death Eaters is small groups had failed, and now it was time for an all out attack.

The doors flew open as teachers and students ran towards the outdoors to help the others outside fight the majority of Death Eaters. Several of the ones inside tried to get out, but Sirius was much too quick for them. He cut them off and sent them all backwards into the tables.

"**_Crucio._**"

Sirius looked over and saw Neville stumble to the floor. Bellatrix had her wand pointing at him, a gleeful look in her eyes.

Sirius tried to get to the boy, but Avery got in his way and he started fighting the man.

Neville groaned angrily, his muscle searing with pain. It wasn't the physical pain that was bothering him as much as it was the mental and emotional pain. Mind you, the physical pain was terrible, but it was the witch's words as she preformed the curse on him.

"Maybe they'll put you in a room at St. Mungo's with you parents, Longbottom," she said in an excited voice. "I had such a fun time with them that day sixteen years ago."

"You bitch!" Neville managed to yell at her. A loud, insane laugh came from her mouth at his words.

"Is that the best you've got Longbottom? I'm not going to stop this spell until it hurts you to blink!"

"_Sectumsempera_!"

Bellatrix screamed in pain and fell to the ground. Neville managed to look around, and saw Alyssa Bones standing over Bellatrix with a dark look on her face.

"You killed my daughter," Alyssa said viciously. "You used the cruciatus curse on her, threw her to the ground and then used the killing curse! She wasn't even a year old! You deserve the most horrible and painful death out of all you Death Nibblers!"

Bellatrix went to grab her wand, but Alyssa kicked it away, and kicked the evil witch in the stomach in the process.

"_Crucio_," Alyssa whispered so that no one could hear it. Bellatrix let out another scream of pain as she twitched on the floor. "How do you like it Trixie? Is it fun?" Alyssa stopped the curse. "I'm an enemy with nothing to lose, and that's the worst kind of enemy you can have!"

Bellatrix let out an angry yell before throwing herself at Alyssa. The blond woman dropped her wand, and amongst the chaos of the Great Hall they physically started fighting.

Neville managed to push himself up, and quickly grabbed his wand. He stared at the two women before yelling, "Alyssa move!"

The woman looked at him, and ignoring the confused look on Lestrange's face, she quickly rolled out of the way. Bellatrix looked around at Neville for a moment as he said, "This is the nice way of letting you die. _Avada Kedavra_."

The blinding, bright green curse shot from his wand and hit her in the chest, and Bellatrix Lestrange fell to the ground, never to breathe another breath again.

* * *

Sweat poured down Tonks' face as she fought with the werewolf in front of her. She had been fighting Goyle, but Greyback had appeared out of no where and had taken the other man's spot.

Now they shot spells at each other, and Tonks was constantly moving out of the way of his razor sharp fingernails as he swiped at her.

"So you're the werewolf's newest whore?" Greyback said. "I must admit, his taste in woman impresses me. The last one tasted rather good when I sunk my teeth into her flesh. I imagine you'll be the same."

"You disgusting bastard," Tonks growled as she dodged away from him. The werewolf suddenly lunged at her, and she wasn't quick enough in moving. The monstrous man pinned her to the ground and was close enough to her that she could feel his disgusting breathe on her face.

"The third kill of the day for me," he muttered, but before he could do anything he was thrown off of her.

Tonks blinked with confusion as she was pulled to her feet and shoved backwards. Remus was in front of her with a dangerous look on her face, one of primal rage that she had never seen before.

"If you're so interesting in me Greyback," Remus growled. "Then let's settle this right now, you and me."

"I've been looking forward to this Lupin," Greyback said as he lunged towards the other werewolf.

* * *

Hermione and Luna both dodged a killing curse. The two girls quickly fought the Death Eaters in front of them, but one of them in particular was rather strong, which forced Hermione to believe she wasn't fully human.

The tall, dark haired woman advanced towards them, but was thrown face first to the ground with a large hole through her chest.

"Oh," Luna gasped. Hermione looked in the direction Luna was facing, and her heart leapt. The students from Beauxbaton and Durmstrang were here!

Students in both pale blue and blood red robes ran into the scene, startling the people they were attacking. No one had expected the two other schools to get involved. Along with the arrivals from the other two European schools, the aurors and the rest of the Order had finally showed up.

Hermione let a smile grace her features, but for only a moment. She screamed as a spell slammed into the ground between her and Luna, separating them by a thick wall of flying dust. Hermione stumbled backwards and fell down to the ground, choking on the bits of dirt.

"What do we have here?" a familiar voice said from behind her. "A lone little mudblood, with no where to run and no one to help her."

Hermione whipped around, and found herself face to face with Lucius Malfoy. The older man was beat up, but he still had a victorious smirk on his battered face.

"Where's Potter now little mudblood?" he asked while taking a step towards her.

Hermione didn't panic; instead she made a quick motion with her wand and silently shot a bone crushing curse at him.

Malfoy blocked it, but in his quickness to perform the shielding charm he wasn't ready for the rest of the curses that Hermione shot at him quickly. The older man was thrown backwards, and the wounds from the hexes covered his body.

Lucius managed to open his angry grey eyes and before Hermione could move he yelled, "_Crucio_!"

She screamed and fell to her knees, never having experienced the curse before she hadn't known what to expect and couldn't prepare to brace herself. Hermione twitched with agony, and it suddenly stopped as someone slammed a powerful hex into Lucius, throwing him backwards.

The next thing Hermione knew, Draco Malfoy had pulled her backwards and stood between his father and her.

Far on the opposite side of the now bloody battle field, Harry Potter cursed a Death Eater when he heard a hissing sound.

Twisting around he saw, much to both his horror and delight, Nagini, the last horcrux, was slithering towards him.

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

This is a present for all the reviewers! An early update!

This chapter was longer than most of the ones I've written so far, and it was all over the place, but this is my least favorite chapter. Not that I'm completely dissing myself, but this is just my least favorite. However, I do like how I ended the next chapter. You're all probably going to hate it though, lol!

As for why I started with Canada instead of the United States or some other country...I am Canadian so I know how politics and everything work here better than anywhere else. It's funny considering I have to 'represent' canada in our model UN tomorrow...lol anyways!

Thank you to: thunder, Demonically Angelic Neko88, Harry Potter Girll, Freedomstar, holimontski, The Mysterious Traveller, JDZ.

You guys are awesome, I honestly felt rotten about the last chapter but your feedback made me feel a little better about it…I don't shudder when I read it anymore! Haha

Why does everyone keep mentioning Ron dying? I know I've stated that I don't like the character of Ron, but I do respect that he's a main character in JKR's world so I'm not just going to go insert story here "PS. Ron died". So I didn't kill him this chapter…but the next one is the deciding factor! I, of course, have already written it so I know who's going to die. I'll give you a hint: you won't believe what I'm going to do.

I'll tell you now I don't have MUCH of Neville or Luna for that matter, in this story…

Holimontski, you've been reading my stories long enough to know that writing IS fun for me…so ending this is actually kind of sad.

I originally had a different scene planned for Snape, but I couldn't figure out exactly how to write it so I decided 'screw it' and just winged it.

So who liked the ending of this chapter? Haha.

And humor me for a minute. Try to guess how this is going to end and I might drop some hints in the next chapter!

**_Krystal Lily Potter_**


	31. The Seven Split Soul

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Thirty One:_** The Seven Split Soul  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.

**_Warning:_** There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

I decided to post this a little earlier than I normally would because I know

* * *

**_"Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back!"_**

_**-Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince**_

* * *

Draco and Lucius Malfoy stood facing each other, determination and shock written on their faces respectively. Draco shielded Hermione from his father, and as Lucius realized what his son was doing, his shocked looked slowly vanished, only to be replaced with rage.

"Draco," he growled angrily. "Move."

"No."

"What did you say?" Lucius yelled.

"I said no father," Draco replied, keeping his wand steadily pointed at his father. "I'm choosing the right side for once, and I don't care what you think about it."

"You treacherous whelp," Lucius hissed. "You'll pay for your betrayal Draco. Once the Dark Lord has won you will regret your decision."

"No," Draco said clearly. "Even if I die today, at least I'll have died fighting for the right side."

Hermione screamed as the two Malfoy's threw spells at one another. The spells collided, throwing them all backwards.

"Run," Draco said without looking at her. "If there's ever been one time in your life that you're going to listen to me, let it be now."

Hermione took only a split second to look at Draco before turning on her heel and running out of sight.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Harry watched Nagini approach him, his wand at the ready. Her yellow eyes were glued into him, and her tongue flickered as she approached him. There was a man walking behind her, and appeared to be following her.

"Master says to keep his snake safe, so I will," the man said, and Harry knew his voice anywhere.

"_I was a dying, but the Lord is merciful and he gives me this to live instead."  
__  
"It's a shame what I have to do with you. You're a very beautiful woman."_

Harry felt his face heat up from anger as he heard his long deceased aunt's screams echo through his head. Her pain echoed in the air around him, the pain that was caused by the man in front of him: Marlow Jibson.

"Nagi—" Jibson trailed off, and his eyes seemed to become unfocused when they landed on Harry. Before the old man could say anything Harry darted towards him.

"You sick twisted son of a–" Harry yelled as he charged the man. Jibson couldn't even react before Harry had tackled him to the ground. Nagini hissed violently and Jibson yelled in pain as Harry slammed his fist into the twisted man's face over and over again.

Harry let out a gasp of pain as he felt Nagini sink her fangs into the back of his leg. His pause allowed Jibson to throw him off and onto the ground. Harry blinked as his head slammed into a rock and stars exploded in front of his eyes. Quickly he pushed himself up, ignoring the searing pain that came from his leg.

Jibson and Harry stood with their wands pointed at one another, the former with blood flowing freely from his nose, and the latter with a shaky leg. Nagini continued to hiss as she circled the two of them.

"You sick bastard," Harry growled angrily. "My aunt…you tortured my aunt!"

Jibson stared at Harry for a moment before saying, "Ahh yes, Karmen Potter. I remember her, she was satisfactory, I will admit." He had a smug smirk on his face until he was thrown backwards.

Harry quickly dodged Nagini, who lunged at him. When she was right in front of him he quickly reached out to feel if the soul was in her. He located it quickly and noticed the most interesting thing: Voldemort soul had blended with her own.

'What I need', he thought. 'Is something to quickly destroy her and Jibson with.'

A loud hoot was heard through the air a moment later. Harry looked up and quickly jumped backwards when a long, thin, silver item fell onto the ground in front of him. Jibson sat up and stared at it curiously, and Nagini let out a loud, dangerous hiss.

Hedwig flew back towards the castle, out of the way of danger with a proud ruffle of her feathers. Harry watched her go for only a split second before looking at the item that had pieced the ground. He let out a light gasp when he saw what it was: the Sword of Gryffindor.

Without hesitating he wrenched it out of the ground. Nagini lunged at him, but he quickly turned and, before Nagini could realize what was happening, he sliced her in two. The large, dead snake fell to the ground, and Harry felt as if a darkness was released from around him. All the horcrux were finally destroyed, and that left only what was left of the original.

"No!" Jibson yelled. "Master will be furious! You will pay!" He grabbed his wand and threw himself at Harry. A loud howl of pain joined the rest of the sounds of war as Harry managed to swing the sword and cut Jibson's arm off. The old man slumped to the ground and Harry said, "Burn in hell." Jibson looked up, only to see the ruby encrusted sword coming towards him, and then he knew no more.

Harry backed away as the body slumped to the ground. For a moment pride befell him, but that feeling was quickly diminished. A cold sensation swept over him as he heard a low, cold voice speak from behind him.

"You killed my snake, Potter."

Lord Voldemort had arrived.

* * *

Sirius ducked through the battling people, desperately trying to find his godson. Every time he came across a dead body he prayed that it would not be the boy he had come to call his own son, and his prayers to find no such body had been answered as of yet. Still, to see so many young people dead put a heavy weight on his heart.

A Death Eater suddenly leapt out in front of him, but before Sirius could utter a single spell the man fell back down. Alyssa stood behind the man with her wand pointed out, a determined and angry look on her face.

"Ali, are you alright?" he asked her as they both ducked on coming spells.

"That best I've been in years," she growled angrily as she cursed a black-robed figure that had been approaching them. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for Harry."

"I'll help," she said and they both quickly darted through the fighting. They both tried their hardest to find Harry, but neither of them was successful. Sirius let out a yell of frustration when Alyssa stopped moving. Her ocean blue eyes were locked on the scene in front of her.

"Lucius! Please don't! He's our son!" Narcissa Malfoy cried out as she stood between her son and her husband. Lucius had obviously over-powered his son, and was getting ready to make the final blow when his wife had stumbled upon the scene.

"Move Narcissa, or I will kill you too! The boy is a traitor and a disgrace. Death is the only way to remove this stain from the Malfoy name!" Lucius raged at her.

"Move mum," Draco muttered weakly. He could barely raise his head off of the ground and was fighting a losing battle to stay conscious.

"No!" she screamed and grabbed a hold of Draco. "No Lucius, please! My baby! I won't let you hurt him! He's still so young!"

Lucius was about to speak the two words that would end the lives of his wife and son, but Alyssa hit him with a bone-crushing curse. He yelled in pain and fell to the ground.

"Alyssa, don't!" Sirius yelled as she rushed towards Narcissa.

"Get him out of here," Alyssa said to Narcissa as she moved between her and Lucius, who was slowly pushing himself off of the ground. "Run and protect your child…save him before your husband kills him…like your sister killed my baby."

The two blond women shared a quick look before Narcissa levitated her son of the way. Draco's eyes opened slightly and he said, "Mum, look out!"

Alyssa turned around quickly only to see the killing curse heading towards Narcissa and Draco. She maneuvered herself quickly, determined not to let another mother lose her child. Sirius yelled in shock as the curse slammed into her and Alyssa Bones crumpled to the ground, dead.

Sirius stared in shock for only a second before he let out a roar of anger and charged towards the injured Lucius Malfoy. Malfoy didn't even have the chance to get up before Sirius was upon him.

* * *

Sweat and blood streaked down Remus' face as he and Greyback circled one another. Their battle was a bloody one, mostly devoid of magic.

Tonks was a few feet away from the battling men. Her leg was injured badly, and she could barely move from pain. When a stranger would appear to try and turn the battle into Greyback's favor she would attack from her vulnerable position, but there was very little that she could do beyond that.

She screamed as a powerful curse flew past Remus and exploded just over her head. She quickly shielded her eyes, so no dust or splinters would fly into them.

"Leave her out of this!" Remus roared angrily before tackling the other werewolf again. Their battle was, perhaps, worse than it would have been, had it been a full moon. Watching two men try to tear each other apart made anyone around them turn away with disgust.

Greyback threw Remus to the ground, and Tonks desperately tried to get up so she could go over and reach him, but instead she was grabbed from behind and dragged backwards.

"Let go of me!" she screamed as she struggled with her captor.

"Shut up and stop struggling! What can you possibly do to Greyback that Remus hasn't done?" an angry voice asked.

Tonks twisted around and was stunned to see that it was Peter Pettigrew who had yanked her away from the fight. His small watery eyes weren't focused on her though; they were watching the fight intently.

He loosened his grip on Tonks' arms and she whirled around to face him, wand pointing at his face. "Give me a reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

"The most important thing to Harry," Peter said suddenly. "Is what family he has left, and that includes you and Remus."

Tonks stared at him oddly, not sure where he was going with this.

"I am of a life debt to Harry, and I finally know how to complete it. He cares about his family, and now I will save his family," Peter said. He shot towards the battling werewolves as Tonks let out a cry of shock and stumbled to the ground. She hadn't expected the pudgy man to be able to move so quickly.

Remus was suddenly thrown backwards, and in his place a short man lunged at Greyback.

"Wormtail!" Fenrir yelled. "You pathetic rat! Of course you would turn against us, you turned against your friends the first time." The werewolf swiped at Peter's throat, hitting the arteries in his neck.

As blood seeped down Peter's hands he managed to yell, "My debt is repaid Harry!" Greyback howled in pain as, with the last strength in his weakening body, Peter plunged his pure silver hand into Greyback's flesh.

Tonks managed to get to Remus before her leg gave out of her again. She clung to him as they both watched Peter and Greyback die.

* * *

Harry kept his wand out as Voldemort slowly walked towards him. There was no fear on the monster's face, but there was a slight hint of surprise.

"I didn't expect you to be here," Voldemort said slowly. "But you have a problem of always being in the thick of danger, do you not Harry?"

"I'm always in danger's way because you seem to have some sort of freakish obsession with me," Harry snapped before he could restrain himself.

"Interesting…you've become arrogant."

"I have not!"

"Ahh, but Harry, you have," Voldemort said with he took a step towards the young man. "There's something about you, your mentality that has changed. I think…yes…this will not only be our last duel, but our finest as well. Shall we do this according to the old ways? I think so, after all this will be a purebred world soon where the old way will rule. First, as always, we bow to one another."

The Dark Lord gave a quick, yet oddly graceful bow, but Harry refrained from doing so. He was not about to let his back be in plain view, because he had no doubt that the dark lord would attack him when his back was turned.

As Voldemort started the bow though, another thought crossed Harry's mind. Voldemort was interested in the old, pureblood ways, and attacking ones opponent when their back was turned was considered disgraceful, no matter which family you came from. This being said, Harry soon realized that Voldemort wouldn't attack him when he was bowing…but he would be shocked to be attacked while doing so.

Without saying a word Harry quickly launched an attack at the dark lord, but the attack was quickly blocked.

Turning his angry, scarlet eyes to meet Harry's surprised emerald ones Voldemort said, "Dumbledore taught you no manners, did he Potter? No difference, if you prefer fighting, then that is what we shall do."

Harry ducked out of the way as a powerful spell flew towards him. He couldn't identify what it was, but he could feel the power from it rippling around him, something he had never come across before.

Harry straightened himself before throwing a bone crushing curse at the dark lord. Voldemort shrugged it off with a silent wave of his wand before retaliating.

The light of the moon, the fires that had started and the hexes being thrown were the only sources of light on the dark night, giving the whole battle an even more eerie look to it. As Harry's eyes followed Voldemort's movement he noticed that the odd array of light gave the monster a creepier look, and for the first time ever, Harry suddenly felt a twinge of fear that most people did when even thinking the name Voldemort.

They continued to circle each other, neither one visibly gaining ground above the other. They silently sent spells back and fourth, either dodging or blocking the ones that came at them. Harry felt himself growing hot, tired and weary. He was sure that he was showing weakness in Voldemort's eyes. To anyone that stumbled upon the duel though, it was as if watching Albus Dumbledore himself fight the dark lord.

Harry dodged the Avada Kedavra curse before Voldemort finally stopped moving. The old man had dodged and blocked all of Harry's spells, but he was physically weaker and was showing more fatigue than the younger man. They stared at one another before Voldemort spoke first.

"I'm impressed that you've lasted this far though, Potter," he hissed. "But know this, you cannot defeat me. I have taken measures that you cannot imagine to prevent my demise. Join me, and I shall share the secret with you."

"Do you really want the person destined to kill you on your side?" Harry growled angrily.

"The prophecy," Voldemort replied. "You know of it. How is this possible? It was smashed…unless…ahh but of course Dumbledore would have known it. Tell me boy, what did it say?"

Harry let out a dry laugh before saying, "You think I'd tell you?"

"_Imperio_." _Tell me the prophecy_

"No," Harry snapped, pushing the voice out of his mind.

"You will regret you're choice boy," the elder of the two said before raising his wand and letting out a series of hissing sounds. Automatically Harry knew that the dark lord was using dark magic that only a parseltone could.

Magic of swirling black and green shot towards him, but it missed. Harry found himself on the ground, having been pushed from behind. He looked over his shoulder and his heart nearly stopped at what he saw.

Hermione was on his back, and was just barely missed by the dark magic. She opened her eyes and stared at him fearfully.

"Hermione! Get away from here!" he said with panic as he got to his feet, and pulled her up with him.

"_Avada—_" Voldemort started to say, while Harry was distracted, but Hermione saw this. She threw herself between Harry and Voldemort. When she did this though, Riddle cut off the spell, but he didn't lower his wand.

Confusion passed over Harry as Voldemort hesitated to throw the curse at them. The dark scarlet eyes burned into Hermione's brown ones before Voldemort said, in a low voice, "The last time I killed a woman who loved Harry Potter, my soul was torn painfully our of my body. Move girl."

"No," Hermione replied stubbornly.

"Hermione," Harry growled at her. She ignored her friend, grabbing his arms so that he couldn't shove her behind him. She was shaking, visibly scared but unwilling to back off.

"Stand aside – stand aside, girl–"

"No. Please – I'll do anything–" Hermione replied, sobbing slightly now.

Harry had a fierce sense of déjà vu, one like he had never experienced before.

"_Not Harry! Not Harry! Please – I'll do anything –"_

"_Stand aside – stand aside, girl–" _

He had heard those words, the ones so similar to the ones being said in front of him right now, when the dementors came near him in his third year. Those had been the words his mother had been saying moments before she died. Terror swept over Harry when he soon realized that it wasn't just his memory screaming his mother's voice. It was his mind. A chill swept over him, and quickly he looked behind him.

Hermione glanced over she shoulder and gasped, the dementors had arrived, and they were not loyal to the ministry or any of its allies.

"No!" Harry yelled, grabbing a hold of Hermione and yanking her close to him. Voldemort's cruel laugh echoed in their ears. The dementors started to close in on them, and the screams in Harry's mind got louder, distracting him from logical thinking, which would have told him to use the patronus charm.

"_Expecto patornum_!"

The dementors backed off slightly as a dazzling boston terrier began to run around the two of them.

"Ron," Hermione whispered.

Harry looked back and sure enough their red haired friend stood with his wand pointing out.

The dementors backed off enough for him to rush to their side.

"I thought I told you to run," Hermione said to him.

"I'm a thick headed bloke, you tell me so all the time," Ron replied, but his eyes lingered on the dark lord.

"How touching," Voldemort sneered as the dementors once again started coming towards them. There was an odd look on his face though; it was almost as if he was pained. "Finish them!"

The dementors closed in again, and this time Hermione yelled, "_Expecto Patronum_!" They all backed away from the shimmering otter, which slowly faded away a few moments later, but Harry wasn't paying attention to that, his eyes were locked on Voldemort, who had winced and taken a step backwards when the patronus was conjured.

No one _really_ knew where dementors came from, Harry knew this, but for the first time he wondered if, perhaps, they were once people. People who longed to be immortal, and they did become so, by splitting their soul. Slowly they would become something completely inhuman. It would make sense if that were true, because then a possible reason for dementors sucking a soul out of someone would be to try and replenish the one that they had destroyed.

"He's like the dementors," Harry whispered so that Ron and Hermione alone could hear him. "The patonus charm makes him weak. I need you two to help me."

The three of them turned their attention towards Voldemort, and they all thought of the happiest thing that they could.

"_EXPECTO PATRONUM_!" the three of them yelled together. At the same a large stag, otter and terrier appeared side by side. The three of them were brighter than Harry had ever seen any other before, but the light didn't bother Harry, Ron or Hermione in the least.

The dementors, however, backed away from them, fleeing to find different victims. Voldemort let out a loud yell of pain before he actually stumbled backwards, and to his knees. Harry stared at him, noticing the first time a thin, black aura pulsing around the dark lord. Voldemort's eyes snapped opened, wide with terror as the aura stopped pulsing.

Scarlet red met emerald green before Voldemort said, "My horcrux."

"Gone," Harry hissed. "All six of them." He quickly threw the disarming spell at Voldemort, who was thrown backwards in his weakened state. Leaving Ron and Hermione behind, he moved towards Voldemort's prone body.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…Born to those that have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have powers the Dark Lord knows not…And either must die at the hands of the other, for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"

As Harry said the exact words of the prophecy to Voldemort, who was visibly becoming weaker as the three patroni continued to circle the four figures, looked as if he wanted to kill something.

"You will suffer Potter, mark my words," He growled, his voice becoming strained.

"You are going to burn in hell for eternity," he snapped back.

"_Avada Kedavra_," Voldemort managed to croak out.

Harry quickly followed the path that the curse was taking, and yelled in fright. Ron and Hermione looked up, only to find their vision blinded by the emerald colored curse that flew towards them. Ron grabbed Hermione and quickly threw himself on top of her.

"No!" Harry yelled, and a powerful serge of magic erupted from his body. A sparkling, silver orb appeared around his two friends and the curse smashed into it, but not through it.

Ron and Hermione looked up, shocked looks on their faces at the shield. Voldemort rasped angrily, but with awe on his face.

With a quick movement of his arm, Harry redirected the curse and it flew back towards Voldemort. The monstrous man was about to get up and move, but Harry wouldn't have that. He jumped at the Dark Lord, pinning him in place.

Hermione let out a terrified shriek, and Ron yelled with shock, as the killing curse slammed into both Voldemort and Harry, and they both limply fell to the ground.  
**  
**

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

There you have it. This wasn't originally how I had planned on the final battle scene being, but I like this version better, once I realized that the other one was similar to the end of Scars of Time.

I bet I shocked a lot of people by not killing Ron off, then again he wasn't in this chapter much, but that's because he was helping the little people! I didn't kill Ron, and Hermione, you all know that. I did, however, kill Peter and Alyssa. As for everyone else…well you're just going to have to wait and see for who lives and dies.

As for Harry…well…I have no comments for that. This story definitely has 34 chapters, so only three more to go! Two of which are almost completely written.

As always, thank you to all the reviewers! Highbrass, Freedomstar, Demonically Angelic Neko88, blueeyes and bluejeans, pstibbons, thunder, JDZ, holimontski, Setoglomper, Harry Potter Girll, SiriusLeeBlack09, and the Mysterious Traveller, you guys are the best!

Last chapter I challenged everyone into saying what they think was going to happen, and as promised I'll give you hints from what you all said.

You've all seen that someone completely unexpected (coming from me) has been hit by the killing curse. I'm pretty sure I've also shocked some people by not killing Ron! I never had any intentions of killing him in this story.

One person asked if I was accurate in saying Harry would turn 17 in 1997 not 2007, and yes this is true. Harry, in the story, was born in 1980.

Muggles are NOT going to go to Hogwarts to see…you'll see why in the next chapter.

Yes, Draco screwed up the original plan, because he's still the git he always was, but he's fighting for the right side now.

You didn't miss what's going on with the magic JDZ, that is going to be explained in the next two chapters.

Neville's alive, don't worry.

I would have made Greyback/Lupin fight in werewolf form, but this battle didn't take place on a full moon. Had it have been a few nights later it would have been. I made it this way so that they were human, yet their wolf sides were starting to show so it made them more vicious.

So I have one more question for everyone, do you think Harry's going to live or die?

See ya'll next time!

**_Krystal Lily Potter_**


	32. The Impossible

_**Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
**_**_By: _**Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Thirty Two: _**The Impossible  
**_Rating: _**T  
**_Summary: _**Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.

* * *

_**Love is forever, when you fall  
it's the greatest power of all…  
**__**Oh I still believe in destiny  
**__**That you and I were meant to be  
**__**I still wish on the stars as they fall from above  
**__**Cause I still believe…  
**__**Believe in love.**_

**_-I Still Believe, Hayden Panettiere_**

* * *

Harry eyes opened to see the darkened ceiling above his head. He was in the hospital wing, in a private room from the looks of it. To his side sat Hermione, gripping his hand tightly, and on a chair only a few paces away was Ron. Harry stared at their moving chests and felt relieved, they were alive.

He closed his eyes as he felt pain flood through his body. It was hard to breathe…oh so hard. He could barely move, and his eyelids felt heavier and heavier by the moment.

Harry thought back on what had happened. He remembered realizing how to weaken Voldemort, he remembered feeling the satisfaction at the monster's terrified expression when realizing that all of his horcruxes were destroyed. He also remembered being hit by the killing curse while pushing Riddle into its path.

He opened his eyes again, and he knew at that moment that Hermione had been right; love did unleash a very strong power that was inside of him, a power that was strong enough to defeat the Avada Kedavra curse. It was what he had used to stop the killing curse from hitting her and Ron.

Squeezing her hand slightly he took in a deep breath, feeling as if a weight was slowly being applied to his chest.

It hurt so much, all of the pain…physical, mental and emotional. The war was finally over, and he, Harry, did not have a purpose left in the wizarding world.

Suddenly it hit Harry, and he knew why he could barely keep his eyes open, why breathing was so hard, and he was terrified. He looked at his friends and the tears finally leaked out of his eyes and down his cheeks.

"Ron, you've been my best mate, and although you were at git at times you were still the best. Take care of Hermione, and remember, you're a great wizard…everyone in your family is. You'll go on to be great, greater than I could ever be."

He turned his gaze to Hermione and whispered, "I'm so sorry, I love you…I really do. Stay strong, and be the brilliant witch we all know you are. Tell Sirius, Remus, Hagrid, Tonks and everyone else that I'll miss them. I'll be waiting for you Hermione, but don't let that stop you from living. You deserve to grow old and have a bunch of little children running around. Just remember to tell them about me, ok? I love you."

Harry stared at them both for a moment before closing his eyes and letting his last breath lose…his hand still limply held in Hermione's hand.

At 2:10am, on June 3rd 1998, Harry James Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, took his last breath and quietly, with his friends at his side, died.

* * *

A terrified, soul shattering scream echoed through the hospital wing the next morning. Sirius, Remus and Tonks had been heading towards the fore mentioned place, and halted at the sound before dashing down the tattered stone corridor.

Madam Pomfrey had been attending to some injured students in a classroom close to the filled hospital wing. Her head snapped up at the scream and she too tore towards her domain.

Sirius was the first to reach the ward. He threw the door open and ran past the startled injured people, who were all staring towards the door at the end of the hospital wing. Sirius felt his heart drop as he rushed forward and tore that door open.

"Harry," Hermione sobbed. "Harry wake up, please…Harry…" Tears streaked down her face and she was desperately shaking his shoulders, but he didn't move.

"No," Sirius said as he watched the scene. His grey eyes shot towards Ron, who was staring with wide blue eyes. His face was pale, and he looked terribly close to tears. "Please no…"

Ron turned to Sirius before slowly nodding his head.

Sirius walked into the hospital wing, and Hermione looked up at him when he was at Harry's other side. She watched as Sirius grabbed his godson's icy hand. Everything was silent for a moment, even when Remus, Tonks and Madam Pomfrey appeared at the door, all with terrified and sad faces when they saw what had happened.

Finally Sirius broke, he collapsed to his knees, and for the first time since he was only a young boy, he started crying. He hadn't cried when he was kicked out of his house, or when James and Lily had died, he had come close to it when his daughter was murdered, but he had kept strong for Alyssa, and now there was no reason to be strong.

When word reached Professor McGonagall's office she let out a great shuddering sob before falling into her chair, resting her head in the palms of her hands. The portrait of Dumbledore stared at her sadly before slipping out of it's frame.

* * *

Hermione," Ron said with dry, forced voice. "We should go and get washed up."

No," Hermione said in a small voice. She couldn't move, she hadn't moved. She lay next to Harry, holding his lifeless hand tightly, as if it could bring him back.

Ron breathed deeply; he didn't know what to do. He had known there was a chance that any of them could die in the final battle, but he honestly hadn't expected Harry to die, he always lived. For the first time Ron suddenly felt lost and knew at that moment why Harry was a great and natural leader. Even his presence allowed people to breath easier and feel comforted and welcomed. Now, without him, everything seemed a little darker.

"Hermione," Ron said again, not really sure what he wanted to say to her. His eyes were rimmed with red from long dried tears.

"No!" she screamed at him suddenly. "No! I'm not leaving!"

I don't want to accept it either Hermione," Ron growled back. "But he's gone. I don't want to sound harsh, he was my best friend, but what can we do? It's impossible to bring someone back from the dead."

"What about Sirius?" she said, her voice becoming high pitched with hysterics. "What about the veil? Couldn't we use that?"

"You know we can't," Ron replied.

"Mr. Weasley is quiet right Ms. Granger," the calm voice of Dumbledore said suddenly. They both turned and looked at a once empty frame. His sad blue eyes stared at Harry for a moment, no twinkle visible in them. "The ritual in which Sirius came back was explained to you Hermione."

"I won't accept that," she said. "Please Professor, you must know something."

Dumbledore stared at her face for a moment, as if he was looking through to her very soul. Finally he slowly, and carefully said, "Mr. Potter is a remarkable person Ms. Granger. He does things that no one else can do, and he defies the impossible. Maybe he can defy the impossible one last time. The veil awaits my dear, but be cautious. I hope you remember how Crouch Junior moved his father's body. Good day."

"What, the bloody hell was that? You'd think, considering the circumstances, he'd speak normally," Ron mumbled.

Hermione, however, stared at the frame with wide brown eyes. She turned to Ron quickly before saying, "He was. We're taking a trip to the ministry Ron."

"What?" he asked with confusion.

Hermione was already ignoring him. With a flick of her wand and some quiet muttering, Harry's body suddenly changed into a bone. She took it with a shaking hand and put it in her pocket before running out of the door.

Hermione!" Ron yelled as the shock of what he had just seen wore off. He took off after her, but didn't catch up to her until they were out of the grounds, just outside of the temporary wards.

"We're going to do the impossible," she muttered before grabbing his arm and apparating them both.

* * *

Ron and Hermione had reached their destination, but no one noticed them. Everything was in chaos for both magic people and muggles. Hermione managed to slip past security and through the silent, echoing halls of the Department of Mysteries. She had left Ron behind several rooms ago, determined to reach her goal. Finally she found herself in the room she wanted to be. Carefully walking down the stairs, she slipped her hand into her pocket and squeezed the item in it tightly.

Tears streaked down Hermione's face as she glared at the veil. Ron rushed in behind her and said, "What the bloody hell do you think you're going Hermione?"

Hermione set the bone on the ground, and quickly changed it back into Harry's lifeless body. A determined look appeared on her face and she said, "I can't live without him Ron, don't you dare say I can. Don't say that the pain will never fade, but he'd want us to move on, don't you dare."

Ron stared at her oddly as she conjured a rope and tied it around her waist tightly. She looked at him with a determined look and said, "To hell with what the books say about this veil. To hell with it! They say only a person thrown beyond it can come back, and they say only a sacrifice will do so. The books also said that no one could survive the killing curse, but Harry proved them wrong the first time. He used a shield to block us from it; he knows how to block it. No one else might figure it out. He's still needed Ron. We still need him." She struggled but managed to hoist up Harry's heavy, unmoving body. "Hold on to the rope Ron, and when I tug at it, pull with all of your might."

Hermione moved towards the veil, but Ron yanked the rope tightly and stopped her. She turned around, looking at him curiously.

"Why are you bringing him with you?" Ron asked hesitantly.

"His soul is in there somewhere. It'll need a body to go back into so we can get it out," Hermione said. "And Ron, if this doesn't work, and I don't come back, don't worry about me."

They met each other's eyes, and Ron said with a determine nod, "Let's make history."

She smiled and moved towards the veil. With only a small glance back at her friend she, and Harry's body, vanished beyond the veil.

* * *

Molly Weasley sobbed as she walked towards the hospital wing. Ron and Hermione would probably be in there, sobbing over Harry's body, which had yet to be moved. He had survived the killing curse again, only to die later in the night. Another baby of hers was gone, biological or not. Charlie had been killed in the final battle, and she still wept tears over him. All the other boys had survived though, and she thanked Merlin every day for it. Fleur had come up to her and tried to comfort her about Charlie's death, and then the news of Harry had reached them…

She pushed those thoughts out of her head as she opened the door and made her way down to the private room that had been put aside for the Headmaster, but McGonagall insisted be used for Harry. She slowly turned the knob and a scream escaped her mouth when she saw what was inside.

Absolutely nothing.

Although nobody had been awake when Harry had taken his last breath, several people had confirmed that he was definitely dead, and she knew that no one had moved the body yet, so where was it? Where were Ron and Hermione for that matter?

Madam Pomfrey rushed over to her and asked, "What's the matter?"

"They're gone," Molly said with a sob as she pointed into the room. Madam Pomfrey looked into and gasped with shock. Molly turned her angry eyes to the door as a tall, black haired man entered the room.

"What did you do Black?"

"What?" Sirius asked, his sad grey eyes looking up at the two women.

"What did you do to Harry's body?" Molly screamed at him.

"I didn't do anything to Harry's body!" Sirius yelled back at her, tears in his eyes and all dignity forgotten. "My godson is dead, Weasley, and I regret it more then you can imagine!"

"Then who moved his body?" Pomfrey asked with confusion.

Sirius looked from one woman to the other before pushing past them and staring into the room, hoping it was simply a horrible joke. As he looked in the room his heart sank, it was empty.

"Where is he?" he shouted, looking around wildly. Without waiting for either woman to say anything he charged out of the hospital wing and towards McGonagall's office.

When Sirius stormed into the room, Tonks and Remus were already in there and were startled at his sudden appearance.

"Sirius," McGonagall said in a sad tone. "I was just about to send for you. We—"

"Where's Harry?" he interrupted her.

"Sirius, Harry…he's…" Tonks couldn't say it. Tears streaked down her face as she hid them from view with her natural, long black hair.

"I know that! I mean where's his body! It's not in there!" Sirius yelled.

They all stared at Sirius with horrified faces and Remus said, "Someone took his body?"

"Oh dear."

The four of them looked up at the portrait of Albus Dumbledore, who looked incredibly pleased with himself.

"Albus, what did you do?" McGonagall said with a terrified expression.

"I was visiting the portrait in the private room, and I spoke to Mr. Weasley and Miss. Granger. She was so determined about finding a way to get Harry back, she even suggested the veil. I reminded her that it was impossible to bring back someone who had simply died from the veil, of course I also told her that Harry has defied the impossible in the past, and perhaps one last time he would do it again.

"You think they're going to the veil?" Remus asked with shock. "To try and get Harry back?"

"That's impossible, you said so yourself!" Tonks cried out. "And if one of them goes into the veil to try and get him back then…"

The four living adults in the room looked positively alarmed and faster then anyone had seen them move before, Sirius, Remus and Tonks rushed out of the room. McGonagall looked at Dumbledore and said, "Please tell me that you think it's one of your slightly possible theories…that there are more going through your mind."

"No Minerva, they've gone to the veil," he said simply. "I knew they were going to go."

"What? And you let them! Why?"

"My dear Professor," Dumbledore said with a smile. "I once told Harry that, after he heard the prophecy of Peter Pettigrew escaping, that it was the third of Sybil's prophecies. The second one is the one that has remained hidden…until now. Besides my dear, Harry's proved the books wrong when it comes to death twice before, why not make it a third?"

* * *

Harry opened his eyes and looked around with confusion. He felt oddly light, and he didn't know where he was. Everything was white around him, no other color insight. He felt detached, and he was in pain for some reason.

He looked down at himself and noticed, with great shock, that the scars that had been on his wrists were gone. He looked at his arms and saw them devoid of anything that would imply he had a rough childhood. Hesitantly his hand moved to his forehead and he couldn't believe what he felt, or rather what he didn't feel.

His scar was gone.

Instead of feeling happy, pain and sadness ran through him. He didn't know why though, he had never cared for the scar in any way. It was a constant reminder of what he could never have.

"Harry?" a light voice asked from behind him. Although said in only a whispered it echoed around him, and a long forgotten warmth filled him. Slowly Harry turned around and found himself staring into a pair of emerald green eyes identical to his own.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing, it couldn't be true. He hesitantly reached out his hand to the woman's face and found that he could touch her. Tears appeared in his eyes as he whispered, "Mum?"

Lily Potter nodded and pulled him into a tight hug. Tears streaked down her own face as she held her long lost son, the one that was now taller then she was.

Harry looked up and saw a man standing a few feet behind her with messy raven black hair, and a grin that Harry had seen many times in the mirror. "Dad?"

James Potter smiled as Lily let go of their son, and he took a cautious step forwards. After a moment of simply staring James grabbed his son into a tight hug like Lily had.

"How, how are you alive? You died years ago," Harry whispered as he stepped back from them.

"Harry, honey," Lily said, looking at James uncertainly.

"We are dead Harry," James finished. "And so are you."

Harry was startled beyond belief. He couldn't be dead! He had always thought that when a person died that they would be peaceful, in a world of content and happiness, unless they were forced to go to hell. Yet here he was with his parents, obviously not in hell, and he was feeling emotional and slightly physical agony.

"I can't be dead, it just feels…wrong…" he said after a moment. His memories of those last few minutes of his life were beginning to plague him again, but instead of accepting it, he went into denial.

"Baby, what does it feel like?" Lily asked him.

"A little painful, and very sad. I thought you were supposed to feel peaceful when you died?"

Tears appeared in Lily's eyes once again as she whispered, "You're not supposed to be here Harry. You're supposed to be alive. Sirius was the same way when he was here."

"But he said that he hadn't seen you, that he stayed in his physical body!"

"He couldn't touch us because he was physically still alive, but we spoke to him all the time. I guess when he returned he lost his memory," James said.

Harry looked down at the floor. He knew the ritual behind pulling a person out of the veil, it had been the last thing that he had read from his mother's translated book before going off into the final battle. He hadn't been thrown through the veil, and his physical body wasn't here, so no matter what was supposed to happen, he was dead.

Harry was about to say something else when he heard a familiar voice yell his name.

"Harry?!"

He without turning around he yelled, "Hermione?!"

A second later the oddest thing happened, he felt like he was thrown away, yet at the same time the pain faded, leaving only the sadness. He moved, and felt himself clutching a very warm body.

"Harry!"

He was startled when Hermione threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she held onto him.

"What just happened? How? Why are you here?"

"I came through the veil," she whispered as she backed away from him. "I came to get you."

"I can't come back Hermione, I'm dead…"

"I brought your body with me! It was lifeless a second ago and then just sprang back to life!" she yelled at him with a terrified sob.

Harry didn't know what to do. Hermione was still holding onto his arm tightly, and he was about to make her release it when he heard his mother say, "Don't Harry."

Hermione gasped when she saw Lily and James and said, "You're Harry's parents!"

"And you're the one here to give our son the one thing I thought only we could give him, life," Lily said with a smile. "Don't let go of him Hermione, or he could get swept somewhere else now that he's a physical being again."

"But I'm not…" Harry started but trailed off when his father's hand went through his arm.

"Yes you are Harry," James said.

"I still can't get back, and neither can you now," Harry said to Hermione sadly.

"Harry James Potter," Hermione growled at him. "Don't you dare say that! We can do this! We have Ron's help on the outside!"

"Harry," Lily said when he was about to protest. "Listen to her. There's no harm in trying."

"Besides," James added. "You're the bloody boy who lived! Show the wizarding world that you can do the impossible again! We're always with you; no matter what you do son. Know that."

Harry stared at his parents with teary eyes before he said, "I'll try, but there's one thing that I need to know. Do you really regret it? All those years ago?"

James looked confused, but Lily smiled warmly and said, "About Halloween."

"Oh," he said. "No Harry, not for a minute. I would have fought, and lost to Voldemort a hundred times if I knew you would kick his ass to oblivion."

"A mother never regrets dying for their child," Lily said. "And even if there had been no prophecy, and we had been a random target, I wouldn't have let him hurt you. Not for a moment. Do not believe that you are alone Harry, so many children have lost their parents who sacrificed themselves."

"We're so proud of you Harry, but you're journey's not over yet," James said. "They're all waiting for you."

"Goodbye," Harry whispered to him sadly before looking at Hermione. "What do we do now?"

"Hold on to me," she said. He did as she told him, and then she pulled the rope that he had only now noticed was around her waist several times.

* * *

Ron was beginning to get worried; it had been at least an hour since Hermione had vanished through the veil. He could feel no movement on the end of the rope, but he wasn't about to let go just yet.

A moment later the door at the top of the staircase flew open, causing him to look up with surprise. Sirius, Tonks and Remus tore down the staircase towards him.

"What have you done?" Remus asked with horror. "What's on the other end of that rope?"

"Hermione," Ron said simply, ignoring the fearful looks on all their faces. He turned back to the veil, sure he had felt a tiny tug on the rope, yet nothing happened for a moment.

"Ron! Hermione just walked to her death!" Tonks cried out. "And you let her!"

Ron was about to say something else when he definitely felt it this time, the rope! He held on tightly as it gave a visible, strong tug.

He braced himself and began to pull backwards.

He heard a grunt behind him, and looked to see that Sirius had grabbed the edge of the rope behind him, and he too was starting to pull. It seemed that Sirius had assessed the situation well, and he knew exactly what was happening. Remus soon joined in on pulling the rope, and after watching for a moment Tonks too grabbed a hold of it.

Pull harder!" Ron yelled to them. It was a little easier with the help of the three other adults, but it still wasn't a completely easy job.

The door flew open again, and this time they were all surprised to see Neville, Luna, Draco and Snape enter the room. Snape had yet to be detained, but he was willing to go without question.

"Professor McGonagall called us to her office, and told us what happened," Neville said as he grabbed onto the rope.

"I don't want Potter to die yet, I still need someone to bug for the next couple years," Draco said as he too grabbed onto the end. Snape and Luna didn't say anything, but they too began to pull.

Ron's face was beginning to turn red, and small beads of sweat were rolling from his forehead, but he refused to give up. His friends were depending on them.

"PULL!" he roared loudly and everyone gave a very strong tug, only to fly backwards.

There was a thump on the floor, aside from them falling, and Ron looked up with hope in his eyes. Harry and Hermione were lying on the floor, neither one of them moving.

"No," he whispered as he scrambled to get over to them. "Please no."

He placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder, and yelped with surprise when her eyes snapped open. She stared at him for a moment before turning over and looking at Harry.

"Harry, wake up," she whispered to him.

Harry didn't move.

Ron looked down to the ground, they had tried, but they had failed.

Tears built up in Hermione's eyes, and much like back in the hospital wing she grabbed his shoulders and started shaking him. "Harry! Harry please wake up! Harry James Potter if you don't wake up right now I'm going to curse you two ways from next Sunday!"

"Don't do that, I'm not feeling good as it is."

Everyone in the room froze in mid movement. Hermione gasped as, slowly, Harry's eyes opened. He looked exhausted, but he was alive.

Harry didn't know what hit him. One minute he was lying on the floor, staring at Hermione and Ron, and the next he was engulfed in a group hug by his two friends, Sirius, Remus and Tonks.

He looked over the crowd and saw Snape, Draco, Luna and Neville smiling at him, yes, even Snape.

"Thank you," he mouthed to them.

They stayed in the same position for several minutes before a loud cracking was heard. Everyone in the room looked around and saw vibrant green words appear on the veil.

_The chosen one returns, his destiny not yet done, but time and death cannot be chosen. To return or go, no longer to decide, is the darkness allowed. Helped by a loved one through dead, to lead the next warriors, for the darkness is never completely gone. To defend the light…the legend will live on… _

"What does that mean?" Neville asked with confusion. He let out a light yelp when the arch started cracking, before it shattered into dust. The actual black veil itself fluttered harmlessly to the floor.

"Trelawney's third, correct prophecy," Harry whispered.

The sound of loud ringing filled their ears. It was distant, yet clear. Harry stared up at the ceiling before using all the strength he had to start running. He heard a couple yells from behind him, but no one tried to stop him. Few people in the Ministry noticed him, and those that did didn't think twice about it, because the news of his death hadn't been released yet.

His lungs felt as if they were on fire when he managed to get outside. He quickly deducted that there would be no huge amounts of physical activity in his recent future. Pushing those thoughts out of his mind, Harry turned his emerald green eyes up to the sky.

Hermione and Ron arrived on either side of him, and both gasped at what they saw. The pieces of magic from the broken wards were flying into the air. They were repairing themselves!

Muggles and Magic People watched as one as the last pieces were put in place. The entire sky started glowing bright white, and slowly they vanished. As they faded completely out of sight, the muggles all gasped as the wizaridng places they could see simply vanished. Panic started to flood the streets, but there was yet another flash of white light, and it all stopped.

Muggles stared at one another, wondering exactly why they were where they were. Most just shook it off and went along on their normal business.

"What just happened?" Neville asked.

"The wards repaired themselves," Luna replied. "And most of the muggles don't remember anything…"

"How's that possible?" Hermione asked, trying to wrap her mind around the thought. "There's no magic that can erase that many memories."

"No spell maybe," Luna agreed. "But there's enough magic in the world to do anything. Besides…how is it possible to bring a person back from the dead?"

Hermione stared at Harry and felt tears weld up in her eyes as she hugged him tightly, burying her head into his shoulder.

Back in Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall had watched the scene from her office, shocked at what had happened. Soon after the flash of white light, the Ministry had informed her that most muggles didn't remember anything. Those who did were being spoken to about what they had saw, but it was quickly agreed upon that their memories would not be erased.

"How can it be that easy?" she asked herself aloud. "How can our problems just be solved like that?"

The portrait of Albus Dumbledore cleared its throat to get her attention. His twinkling blue eyes stared at her seriously as he said, "Sometimes things happen for reasons that reason cannot explain. There are things that happen every day, in both our world and the muggle world, that do not make sense. For instance, how is it that only one person in history…Harry…was born with the power inside of him to survive the killing curse? There is no real answer from that except destiny. As for the wards and the muggles, perhaps our worlds are not ready to merge…perhaps there still has to be that divide before we can meet each other in ideas and technology. I dare say that we are fairly behind on that detail. There is no real reason for why they fell in the first place, but perhaps it's possible that it was simply to prepare the two worlds for the day when they will join together. Introducing magic in small portions to smaller groups is much wiser than simply throwing it at the muggles all at once. Do not try to figure out how this has happened Minerva, and do tell Miss. Granger the same. I suppose she'll be busy fussing over Mr. Potter as it is."

"What?"

"Harry Potter has done the impossible more than once, and he has yet to disappoint anyone with lack of surprises," Dumbledore said. He nodded happily to himself before walking out of the frame.

Back at the Ministry, people who had been told that Harry Potter was dead, gaped in shock at him. Harry ignored their looks and gripped Hermione's hand tightly. There was a smile on his face as he decided to let the magic world have its secrets. The two worlds would meet someday, there was no way they could stay separate forever, but that time was not now.

He would not dwell on those thoughts though; he would take advantage of his renewed life and actually live it.

After all, it did not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

* * *

_**  
Author's Note  
**_

NO THIS IS NOT THE END. I could stop it there though…hmm…I'm just kidding!

You're all lucky, I almost lost this chapter. None of my compters would open it but finally I managed to get a copy of it working…mind you there MIGHT still be mistakes in there…with quotation marks and so on, because a lot of those got deleted out. This is definitely the longest chapter in the story. So what did you all think of it? I thought of maybe dragging out the 'Harry is dead' thing until the next chapter but then I decided not to. It's rushed, I know, but I'm still happy with it.

Thank you to all the people who reviewed! Thunder, JDZ, setoglomper, blueeyes and bluejeans, SiriusLeeBlack09, pupdawg66, Fredomstar, highbrass, capedium, Demoness-MarlstonWlls69ner, ceo55, Demonically Angelic Neko88, Harry Potter Girll, Kathryn, The Mysterious Traveller, yt, holimontski and sanaa.

For Harry's 'death' you all have to understand that, in the long run, Harry was NOT killed by the killing curse. It was the lack of magic, exhaustion, wounds and everything like that that caused him to die originally. I thought I'd point this out because many people did remember that I said Harry was immune to the killing curse.

Everyone should **read this part**, because it's important. I said that a person who wasn't thrown through the veil couldn't come back, and that, before it was destroyed, still applied. Harry just deffies all laws of magic...odd kid...

I also know there are going to be some people disappointed with how I didn't actually EXPLAIN how the magic fell and came back, but that's how I had it planned.

In actuality this is the second version of the story, originally I had planned on killing Harry, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Actually I felt like crying after I wrote it and read it over so I decided 'NO!'

So we're coming down to the end, two chapters left!

**_Krystal Lily Potter_**


	33. A Million Lights

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Chapter Thirty Three:_** A Million Lights  
**_Rating:_** T  
**_Summary:_** Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince._**

* * *

**_

It had been three weeks, four days, two hours, and 28 minutes since Voldemort had attacked Hogwarts. Harry had kept track of the time to the minute, even to the second if he tried hard enough.

After his return to Hogwarts, were only a select few knew of his death, he had been seized by Molly Weasley, Poppy Pomfrey and Minerva McGonagall. They had forced him into the hospital wing to check him over. The wounds were still there, but they would heal over time, leaving only scars, something Harry had come accustomed to. He had decided that he wouldn't be himself if it wasn't for the scars on him, including his lightning bolt shaped scar.

Over the week he was kept in the hospital wing he had done some thinking, and finally Harry accepted that the scar was a permanent part of it, and in a way it did make him who he was. Had he grown up with his parents, without the scar, he would have been a completely different person then he was.

"Would you change anything of it?" Ron had asked him one day.

Harry had thought back over everything that had happened, yes he regretted the lives that had been lost and the devastation that the wizarding world had been through, but finally he understood. It was no use dreaming of the past, or to try and look to the future. All that mattered was the here and now.

"I can't, so there's no use thinking about it. I do regret that they're all gone…all of them…Charlie, mum, dad, Karmen, Vera, Sarah, Alyssa, Regulus, Cedric, Dumbledore...Ginny…but their sacrifices weren't in vain. Voldemort is finally gone. Maybe if they hadn't died then everything would have turned out worse. But it doesn't matter. Don't look to the past, and be careful with trying to see the future Ron…just, for now, focus on the present."

His own words rang through his ears as he lay in his bed, staring at the canvas in front of him. He was finally home, in the Gryffindor tower.

He listened to Ron's loud snores in the bed across from him, and Neville's deep grunts. Dean still wasn't back yet, he had been in the hospital wing for about two weeks before being moved to St. Mungo's. His left arm had been maimed, and now he was going through therapy so that he could work his new hand properly.

Hermione had opted to stay in the girl's dormitory with Lavender, who had been lonely throughout the year. The Patil twins hadn't returned, and neither had Hermione, so the only other seventh year female Gryffindor was left alone. The last time Harry had seen Lavender, she was sobbing and running up the stairs. News had come that, despite their parents wishes, the Patil twins had left their safe haven and came to fight. Padma was injured badly, and was in St. Mungo's…and Parvati was dead.

The final battle with Voldemort would be one that would definitely go down in the history books. It was the first time, since the early days of the founders, that all four houses had been united in one common cause. Not only that, but it was the first time in their history that the three European schools had come together to fight for a major cause. Even some of those who had graduated from Durmstrang and Beauxbaton had showed up for the battle. Victor Krum himself had shown up for the battle, and because of it he had a right nasty scar doing down the side of his face.

A light snore from his left made Harry smile slightly. Seamus had been kept under house arrest by his mother during the battle, so he hadn't been able to join, but he managed to convince her to come with him to help the injured. When Seamus had showed up, he seemed to expect everyone, especially Harry, to scream at him or attack him because he didn't help fight, but no one did. Those he encountered just smiled before sending him to work helping with the more minor injuries.

Harry continued to think over those lives that had been lost. Along with many students from all three schools, aurors, volunteers and teachers had died as well. Hogwarts would no longer see Professor Sprout's smiling face, and Madam Hootch was no longer confined to the school like she had been for the past year, her spirit could now soar freely to wherever it pleased. The two newest Professors had also died: Professor Whiteburn, who had taught transfiguration, and Professor Norton, who taught Defense Against the Dark Arts, but his death didn't come as a surprise to many students.

Along with those four Professors, one more had been lost. Harry did not know what to think about her death, because it was both good and bad. It was a terrible thing, because she hadn't deserved to die, yet now that she was dead, the information she carried inside of her was hidden away forever as well. Professor Trelawney would never again utter a prophecy, and nor would anyone find out about her three true prophecies…at least not for awhile.

Harry rolled over in his bed and jumped backwards. Standing at the side of his bed, peaking his head through the scarlet curtains, was a large black dog.

"Padfoot," he muttered as the massive dog jumped onto his bed and curled up at his feet. Ever since Harry's return, the dog had taken to doing this every couple nights. Sirius claimed it was to make sure that Harry was alright, but Hermione had suggested that maybe Sirius just wanted to make sure that Harry being there wasn't just a dream.

While in the hospital wing Hermione had told him that Sirius had killed Lucius Malfoy in a rage. Malfoy had killed Alyssa, and Sirius had taken all his anger out of the now deceased man.

A small smile found a way to his face as his thoughts turned to Hermione. She had rarely left his side when he was in the hospital wing, and clung to him afterwards. It was as if she still took Lily Potter's words to heart, and if she let go of Harry he would be swept away somewhere else, even though they weren't behind the veil. Just to see her smile everyday was a good enough reason for him to keep living on.

"You're such a sap mate," Ron had joked when Harry had accidentally told him that. Ron found it hard to smile, but he did manage to put his best foot forward and to keep people's spirits up, despite all the loss that everyone felt.

Harry lightly stroked Padfoot's neck before he forced his mind to shift away from the morbid thoughts of the deceased Weasleys that threatened to fill his mind. Instead he focused on a rather disturbing issue: why the wards had fell.

Harry had spoken to Professor McGonagall, a few people from the Ministry, Remus, Sirius, Tonks and the portrait of Dumbledore, and through all of them he managed to piece together a very startling answer to why it happened: magic, slowly but surly, was fading. Not the magic found inside witches or wizards; that was too pure and too natural to fade away. The magic that ran through the veins of everyone, just in different portions, did not come with an incantation, a color, a feel or a shape. It just was. Harry had decided this was what he used when he did wandless, silent magic.

He was positive that there would come a time when spells could not be used anymore, and magic would have to be used in the way it was eons before: with simple want and need. It was a confusing theory, even to Hermione, but she still seemed to think that the basics of it were likely. The spell and the wand did not make the magic…the magic was made by the person. For a moment Harry wished he could go back in time to test his theory, to see if a ward made without any spells or wands might have stayed up where artificial magic had failed, but he decided later on that he had enough with seeing the past.

"Don't think on it too much Harry," Hermione had told him. "You'll end up getting yourself confused. I agree, that maybe all these rituals and things will fade away eventually, but thinking on it won't stop it."

"Who says I want to stop it?" Harry had replied.

His thoughts turned to the rest of the conversation he had with Hermione. As hw remembered everything that they had talked about, Harry slowly lulled himself back to sleep.

* * *

It had been three weeks, five days, twelve hours, and 16 minutes since Voldemort had attacked Hogwarts. Harry and Ron were carefully levitating pieces of rubble out of the way so that no one would hurt themselves on it. The younger children were finally returning to Hogwarts, for the end of the year ceremony at the insistence of Headmistress McGonagall. She had also encouraged parents and family members to come as well. They would all be arriving soon, and the last part of the castle needed to be cleared out.

"Did you hear about Snape?" Harry asked Ron suddenly.

"No," the red head replied. "Well nothing aside from that his trial was held a few days ago."

"Yeah," Harry said. "He's going to Azkaban for murder. He admitted it, and even though it was more like assisted suicide, he must pay for what he did. He won't be in there for his entire life though."

"What about Malfoy?" Ron asked. "Was he punished for anything?"

"In true typical Malfoy fashion, he paid bail with a few extra tips on the side, or so I've heard," Harry said with a slight chuckle. "That annoying ferret will never change…but I don't really care, as long as he doesn't try to become the next Dark Lord."

Ron rolled his bright blue eyes before saying, "He wouldn't stand a change against me, let alone you, so I don't think we have to worry. Where's Hermione?"

"Helping McGonagall with the conjuring for the ceremony," Harry explained.

"Ahh," was his friend's only reply as they set back to work. Working made their minds focus on the task at hand, and not at the dark thoughts that would forever echo around their minds.

* * *

It had been three weeks, and six days since Voldemort had attacked Hogwarts. Row upon row of chairs had been set up with a podium. They were outside, in front of the lake. The dark sky was clear, and the half-moon lit up the area where the floating torches could not. Harry stared at the twinkling stars with interest, only bringing his attention back to Earth when Hermione squeezed his hand.

He stared at her before moving his arm around her shoulder. She scooted closer to him, but still, no one said anything.

A light splashing sound was heard as the mermaids surfaced, and at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, in plain sight, were the centaurs. Hagrid sat with his brother, Grawp, at the back of the rows, and it made Harry think of Dumbledore's funeral. It was almost the exact same. There were a few small differences though. At the funeral Hermione had been clinging to Ron, and Ginny was sitting close to him. It amazing Harry how much time could change a person, whether by taking their life, giving them life, or by pointing their heart in a new direction.

Everyone went silent as Professor McGonagall stood on the podium. Everyone watched as she used her cane to walk, having been injured during the battle. Still, with a grace that was seen in very few elder people, she reached her spot before speaking.

"Almost four weeks ago the final battle between Voldemort (she finally said his name without a flinch, something she had been dreading would happen) and the Light took place. Many lives were lost…lives that can never be replaced. This victory has been over two decades in the making, and we will learn from our past mistakes. I have been giving the honor of informing everyone here that an organization will be formed to spread the thought of peace, and, just in case another dark lord may try to arise, this group will aid one another so that no country has to rely on students to recruit people from other countries (she gave Harry and Hermione). This organization will work closely with it's older, muggle counterpart, to keep the two worlds informed of one another, so that, when the time comes, and the two worlds merge, everyone will be ready for it. This organization is called the M.U.N, the Magical United Nations."

The muggleborns, half-bloods and everyone else who knew muggle politics and history cheered, and those who didn't assumed it was a good thing. It was one step close to allowing the magical world to catch up with the muggle world.

"This was only possibly by…" McGonagall began speaking of the war, and the dozens upon dozens of people who had been killed. Harry only partially listened to her as he turned hi head to the sky again.

"Harry," Hermione whispered. "You should be listening to her."

"The stars are so bright though," he whispered suddenly. "It just gives me a calming feeling, and I don't want to listen to the darkness."

Ron shifted slightly next to Harry when his sister was mentioned, but aside from that it seemed as if the red head was in a world of it's own.

"…Tonight we honor those who died," McGonagall said. With a wave of her wand hundreds of candles on metal trays appeared, each with a name inscribed on it. She didn't say what they were for as she walked away from the podium. People stared at them with curiosity, wondering what was going to happen next.

More people got up to speak, ignoring the candles behind them. Finally, after the last person was done speaking, everyone sat silently, waiting for a queue on what to do.

Remus was the first one to rise from his seat. His amber eyes looked at Harry for a moment before he slowly walked towards the candles. Tonks and Sirius followed him closely. Each of them picked up a specific name and walked towards the lake. As they walked the candles lit themselves, burning brightly.

"Karmen Potter," Remus muttered as he placed the tray into the water. It started floating out, like a lone star appearing in the night sky.

Tonks knelt down at the edge of the lake and whispered, "Regulus Black."

Sirius followed suit, and with a sad face he said, "Alyssa Bones."

It appeared that everyone understood what they were supposed to do. Slowly person after person got up and moved towards the candles. Soon the lake was dotted with brightly shining flames, each representing a life lost in the war.

Cho Chang walked by Harry, shooting him a sad smile. She knelt down and carefully pushed her candle to the lake, for Cedric Diggory.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't be a better sister to you," Molly said through her sobs. "I'm sorry that I treated you like…dirt because you were stronger willed than I was. I wish you were still here Sarah, I really do." She set the candle in the lake, the name Sarah Prewett shone brightly from the moonlight.

Hermione carefully stepped into the edge of the water, shivering at the cold water that touched her ankles. Kneeling down in the water, she pushed the candle that said Vera Evans out into the water silently. She didn't move afterwards though.

On either side of her, Harry and Ron also knelt down, not caring that they were soaking their pants. With a pain filled face Ron whispered his sister's name, and Ginerva Weasley floated away. All three of them watched that one float, and mingle with the hundreds of other lights that littered the water. Mermaids swam underneath the surface, moving and positioning the candles around the lake.

Harry carefully balanced two trays. Slowly he pushed them out into the water, noticing that they traveled together instead of separating. A small smile tugged on his lips as he said, "James and Lily Potter."

McGonagall watched those two float away before pushing Professor Trelawney's out, not saying a word. She watched it for a moment before saying, "There's one left."

Nobody moved for a moment before Harry stood up and made his way over to the final candle. When he touched it, it lit up brilliantly and he carefully made his way over to a large shillouet.

"Hagrid," Harry said slowly. The half-giant turned around and stared at him with a pained smile.

"So many 'Arry, too many," he said while nodding to the lake. "An' another one, eh?"

"We want you to put this one out," Harry said and passed it to his friend.

The largem an stared at Harry with surprise before carefully turning it around to see the name. Tears filled up in Hagrid's small eyes before he said, "No…ya should."

"Hagrid, go," Hermione said as she came up to Harry's right side. She clasped his hand tightly into hers and stared at Hagrid expectantly.

Trough his tears Rubeus Hagrid waded out into the water before pushing the final candle into the water. He watched it for a moment, before saying loudly, so everyone could hear, "Ter Albus Dumbledore, the greatest wizard there ever was."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Luna, Neville, Draco, McGonagall and Hagrid all stood together, watching the candles. Other groups huddled together, gazing at the spetical with amazed faces.

Hundreds of candles burned brightly, and for a moment it looked like the night sky had fallen and replaced the water.

Harry wrapped his arms around Hermione, leaning his chin on the top of her head before saying, "And a million lights are what it took to defeat the darkness."

"Lets hope," Ron added. "That it never happens again."

Mummers of agreement filled the air as everyone stared at the water, unaware of the clock striking two in the morning.

High in the halls of Hogwarts, in the Headmaster's round office, Albus Dumbledore smiled in his portrait. All the other former Headmasters and Headmistresses had fallen asleep long ago, once they were sure that nothing else interesting was going to happen in the office.

Dumbledore smiled to himself, and the painting of Fawkes thrilled to himself before settling beside his master. Together, wizard and phoenix finally were allowed to rest, and like all the other portraits, they both dozed off into a deserving slumber. The last glance the portrait saw was the ice-smooth black surface of the lake, shining with what looked to be a million lights.

* * *

Harry sat on the warm sand with his eyes closed. He still enjoyed the outside much more than he did being inside. The castle was in a rush, as graduation was that day, and the small class did deserve that in the least. He, however, wouldn't be attending. It was funny, really, that he had dropped out before seventh year, and yet he already had several job offers.

Quidditch teams from around Europe came by, asking him if he would enjoy playing for their team. Of course he would have enjoyed it, but he refused.

The Ministry too, had offered him a job as an auror, and much to Tonks' dismay he refused. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life now that Voldemort was dead.

His mind turned to the death of the dark lord. He hadn't been conscious for it, but apparently, in his weakened state and with no horcrux left to depend on, Riddle died the second the curse touched him. The fact that he died and Harry had lived sent the wizarding world into a fit of 'Potter worshiping', but luckily no one knew the truth (those who had heard were told that they were false rumors), otherwise the hysteria would have driven him insane.

Harry lay back, keeping his eyes closed. He had always loved the Quidditch pitch, it was one of the only places he felt free. He lay for a moment before his ears picked up the sound of soft footsteps slowly approaching him. Opening his eyes he looked back to see who it was, only to see Hermione walking towards him.

She sat down next to him but didn't say anything. She glanced at him for a moment before looking back at her hands. The clock struck 1 o'clock, signifying the beginning of the Graduation ceremony.

"I'm sorry Hermione," Harry said suddenly, never taking his eyes off the sky.

"For what?" she asked, shooting him a confused look from where she sat.

"You were such a good student before I dragged you into my problems. Now you're a drop out, instead of Head Girl like you should have been. You should be up there, instead of Susan, giving a speech about following the rules and all the good times you had in Hogwarts," Harry said, nodding his head towards the castle.

"You're an idiot Harry," she said. Whatever he had been expecting her to say, that definitely was the last on his list.

"What?"

"The only good times I had in Hogwarts were with you," she said with a sigh. "If you hadn't dragged me into your problems, life would have been dull and I would still be that insufferable little bookwork." Harry gave her a doubtful look, causing her to sigh again. She lay down, her head on his chest with one arm thrown over him. "I wouldn't change a thing. And you know what, I'm glad I'm not graduating. Can you imagine if I had to do a speech? And NEWTs? I'd be driving myself to insanity I think."

Harry laughed slightly while throwing an arm around her shoulder, snuggling her closer to his side. They lay like that for a moment before Harry asked, "Are you sure Hermione? Some things you still can change…"

She turned her head so that her brown eyes met his green ones. They stared at one another until she said, "I'm positive Harry. I've never been more positive about anything in my entire life. I love you."

For the first time in a while an honestly happy smile appeared on his face as he hugged her closer and said, "I love you too Hermione, you have no idea how much."

"Actually, I think I might have a bit of an idea," she replied as she closed her eyes and curled up on him again.

Harry didn't reply to her, he kissed the top of her head before looking back to the sky, slowly falling asleep.

* * *

Ron sat at the back of the Great Hall, watching as the remaining students in the graduating class got their diplomas. There were so few, compared to those who had entered the halls in first year. Harry and Hermione had yet to show up, and the ceremony was almost over.

Ron had expected to feel some regret at seeing the people he had known for six years graduate without him, and he surprised himself by feeling the exact opposite. There were no regrets haboured in Ronald Weasley, not anymore. The war had forced the jealous, completely oblivious Ronald Weasley into extinction, and a new, calmer, wiser Ron stood in his place. He thought about, only for a moment, who he would have been if he hadn't met Harry, or Hermione, and quickly decided that the controlling git he would have been wasn't even worth thinking about.

The doors to the Great Hall silently opened and closed quickly. Harry and Hermione quietly slid into the seats next to him. He nodded at them, before turning to the front of the room. A few rows in front of them, Draco Malfoy turned and nodded to them, he was going through the same ordeal with not being able to graduate. Across the room Padma Patil, Seamus Finnigan, Hannah Abbott, and anyone else who had been taken away from Hogwarts sat together silently.

When the last person got their diploma (Zabini), everyone expected McGonagall to get up, but no one did until Flitwick came in the room, levitating a large portrait in front of him. McGonagall smiled at it, and everyone seemed to gasp as one when they saw it was a portrait of Albus Dumbledore.

The picture's blue eyes looked around the room before saying, "Hello my students, it has been a year now since I've seen most of you, and I'm terribly honored that Headmistress McGonagall let me speak in her place, for I never got to say my final goodbyes to you. First, congratulations to those who graduated this year. It has been a troublesome road, but you of all people deserve those diplomas. To those that should have been graduating, you all still have so much potential in you, and I have no doubts that many of you will go far with a little more training."

He paused and looked around again before continuing.

"Now many ministry officials will frown on letting a portrait speak, after all, I do not have all the memories of my former self, and that is probably for the best. However, I do still feel there are some last words of advice that I can give you. You have all learned that teamwork in so important to survival, and I hope you continue to realize this in the future…that all types of magical users, and eventually muggles as well, will be able to work together. Things will change, I have come to realize that, but do not fear it, but welcome it. Magic is not what it used to be, we've all come to realize that."

Muttering went through the crowd, but no one spoke loudly. Harry could hear some skeptics, but mostly people seemed worried and frightened. It was at that moment, as Dumbledore repeated many words of advice he had given in the past, Harry realized why it was a good thing that the wards had repaired themselves. The wizarding world and the muggle world were too different at the moment…too skeptical of one another. Forcing them to clash together so abruptly would only lead to prejudice and war from both sides.

"…I repeat things that I have said in the past," Dumbledore said after another pause. "This I know, but alas, the past is the key to the future. To make sure that mistakes are not carried out again one must first remember the consequences of those mistakes. However, I must caution all in here (his eyes moved in his painted face before landing on, and meeting Harry's) that some pieces of the past must be let go before the future can become a reality. This will make sense to all of you some day. Alas, it is time that I return to my domain in the Head office, but remember…help will always be given at Hogwarts, to those who ask for it. I am so proud of all of you in here, and I wish you the best of luck in the future. Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"

Nobody seemed to know what to do at Dumbledore's last words; were they supposed to clap for a portrait? Despite the confusion slowly cheers echoed through the Great Hall. For the first time everyone could feel it, the future without fear of Death Eaters was approaching them and they all gladly welcomed it with open arms.

As for Harry, he sat in the back, between Ron and Hermione, clapping with the rest of them. There was a look of understanding in his eyes, he had a feeling that he knew exactly what Dumbledore was hinting at when he said that sometimes a person must let go of the past…

* * *

He moved quickly, his emerald eyes scanning the area, to make sure that no one else was in the vicinity so that they wouldn't be harmed.

"What are you doing?" Ron asked as he slowly walked towards Harry. He eyed the house behind his friend warily. Hermione followed closely behind Ron, and a few moments Sirius and Remus showed up.

"I thought you should all be here," Harry said after a moment as he walked away from the dilapidated house that once belonged to his parents. He stared at it with sad eyes, knowing that it was far beyond saving. To build the future though, sometimes the past must be left behind.

"Why?" Sirius asked his godson.

"I know what Dumbledore was talking about, and I know you're all going to think I'm insane, but this is what needs to be done."

"Harry?" Hermione said and took a step towards him. She watched cautiously as Harry stared at his wand for a moment before placing it back in his pocket. He faced her for a moment before grabbing her hand and turning back to the house. "Harry?"

He didn't say anything, he just moved his hand quickly, and the house caught fire.

"What are you doing?!" Remus yelled with surprise.

"We couldn't have saved the house Remus," Harry explained. "This way the Potters can always have a place to call home here, once I build a new one. I made sure there was nothing valuable in the house, no books or pictures or trinkets. But there's one last thing."

He face Hermione and said, "Could you, with my mother's diary, translate the spell book again? If you had to."

"If I had to, yes," she said slowly. "Why?"

Harry ignored her and pulled the translated version out of his bag. With the accuracy of a Chaser, he threw the book and it handed in the flames. Hermione let out a light scream as she saw the book burn, but Harry just squeezed her hand and said, "I didn't want it to end up in the wrong hands…trust me…this is for the best."

The five of them stared at the burning house, watching the flames as they grew. Sirius and Remus later put up a charm to stop the flames from spreading too much, but it was still a spectacle to see. Many of the villagers from Godric's Hallow stopped to see what was going on. No one protested the burning of the old house, no one seemed worried that other houses would be harmed. After all, the people in Godric's Hallow knew about magic, and were very good about keep it quiet from outsiders until the time came for the secret to be revealed.

It had been four weeks, three days, nineteen hours, and 42 minutes since Voldemort had attacked Hogwarts, and Hermione held Harry's hand tightly as Ron came up to her other side. Together the three of them watched as the last wood started to turn into ashes, and the past faded in order for the future to replace it with the sparks flying into the air like a million lights.

* * *

**_Author's Note_**

…umm…ok I don't know…this is choppy as all hell…I don't really have an opinion on this chapter because I have no clue what happened myself. Let's all just nod our heads and say "whoop! One more chapter left!"

I tried to touch on some reasoning, but there are some things that won't end up being completely explained (the wards falling, for instance), because I thought it would be interesting to leave it opened. I will tell you all right now, as far as I can tell, I **WILL NOT** be writing a sequel to this story. In all honesty, I'm not sure if I'll get around to writing anything else on this site at all. I **DO** have other stories in mind, but it all just depends.

If I was to make another fic, I can tell you now that I'd probably go with the AU one I have. Actually I'm writing the plot line now, so you never know, it might get up, it might not. I'm pretty proud of myself, because this is the first fic I've completely finished without huge, month gaps in between chapters! Yay me! Haha!

If there's anything you wanted to ask me or anything, do it in a PM on this site because I won't be putting any author's note on the next chapter. I think that the authors notes would take away from the ending. I tried to explain all I could in this chapter, but less go through and answer some questions anyway…oh, and if you don't have a login, and have a question, just leave an email and I'll get back to you!

-I explained in this chapter that Voldemort was in a weakened state when the killing curse hit him, and with no horcrux and no immunity to it, like Harry has, he died.

-I gave a little more explanation to the wards falling, but it's just one of those things that if I TRIED to write it down in full detail I'd probably confuse myself.

-You're all right, I like Harry too much to kill him, although that's how the original ending for the story went.

Thank you to those who reviewed this chapter: **_highbrass, JDZ, sanaa, thunder, Demonically Angelic Neko88, Harry Potter Girll, holimontski, blueeyes and bluejeans, pstibbon and Julie Merchant._**

Also there are a few other people who have been awesome reviewers throughout this fic! **_Pupdawg66, SiriusLeeBlack09, The Mysterious Taveller, Freedomstar, setoglomper_**, and if there was anyone else who reviewed a lot, and I missed you, sorry! But you guys were great too!

I hope all the readers that didn't reviewed liked this story as well!

_**Krystal Lily Potter** _


	34. Once in Every Lifetime

**_Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul  
By:_** Krystal Lily Potter  
**_Epilogue:_** Once in Every Lifetime

I lied, there's going to be one author's note. I'm just wondering WHY almost everyone assumed that the last chapter was the end, when I clearly said that I had 34 chapters?

* * *

_**It's time to move out of the darkness  
**__**Use what you feel inside  
**__**Your faith alone will guide you  
**__**Feel the turning tide**_

Her dark curly hair flew around her as a car drove by quickly. Her eyes looked around, unsure of where she was supposed to be going. She carefully avoided a puddle on the ground and turned around, waiting for the rest of her family to show up. Patience was never her strongest attribute, something that she had inherited from her father.

A small smile graced her young face. Her mother would always complain about how she was too much like her father for her own good, but it wasn't spiteful complaining, it was more affectionate teasing than anything.

She took a few steps towards the place her father had described when laughter reached her ears. A grin appeared on her face as she looked over her shoulder to see a small boy with curly raven black hair running towards her.

"What did you do now?" the girl asked with amusement as the boy smiled at her with his ever cheeky smile.

"Sirius James Potter!" their mother's voice echoed over to them a moment before she appeared around the corner with an annoyed look on her face. "How many times do I have to tell you not to turn people's hair pink, espeically when they're muggles! And how many times have i told not not to run off?"

"Sorry mommy," the seven-year-old said with as his wide, bright brown eyes widened innocently.

"You're too much like your namesake," their mother said with a sigh as she scooped the small boy up into her arms and placed a kissed on his cheek.

The boys face went bright red as he hastily wiped away his mother's 'cooties' with a disgusted look on his face. The girl laughed at his antics.

"Are you ready?" her mother asked her.

"Well it would be bad if I missed the train," the girl said. "Where are dad and Daniel?"

"Coming with the owl you forgot," another young voice said. She smiled at her brother, Daniel Harry Potter, who gave her an annoyed look with his glasses-framed emerald green eyes.

"I knew you'd bring her," she said innocently before turning to her father. "Can we go onto the platform now daddy? Please? I don't want to miss the train."

Harry Potter sighed at his only daughter before saying, "Well I don't know, maybe I should just drop you off at Hogwarts when I go later."

"Daddy!" she said with big, emerald puppy dog eyes.

"Hermione," he said to his wife. "I told you not to teach her that look, now I'm helpless against her!"

Hermione Potter smiled at him and said, "You can't deny us Potter women anything anyway honey, so I don't see why it matters."

Harry grinned at her before nudging his daughter, "Are you ready Harmony?"

Harmony Lily Potter's eyes widened and a smile that matched her father's appeared on her face, "I can't wait! I get to meet Nearly Headless Nick! And eat in the Great Hall! Do you think I can try out for the Quidditch team if they need a seeker? Or can I meet a troll—"

Hermione gave Harry a mock glare as she took one of her sons in each hand as they walked into Platforms 9¾ for the first time in a very long time.

_**It's in your heart it's in your soul  
**__**Don't be scared…keep believing  
**__**I know you know…deep inside  
**__**That your time has come **_

Harry walked beside his daughter, making sure that Harmony never got separated from him as he looked around. It had been a long time since he had entered the platform, but it felt like yesterday that he had first entered it, in awe at the scarlet steam engine.

Harmony had a look of awe on her face that perfectly resembled the one that he had had, as she stared at the different people, so many of them dressed in different ways. There were nervous looking younger children, excited older children, anxious seventh years and everyone else in between.

"There they are," Hermione said suddenly. Harry followed her gaze and a large smile appeared on his face.

"Ron!" he yelled out, causing the red haired man to turn around.

The second he realized who was calling his name a large smile appeared on his face as he said, "Harry mate! I was beginning to think you'd never show up!"

"You know us Potters, we like to be fashionably late," Harry joked. "How's RJ doing?"

"Dad," Daniel interrupted. "I wanna go to Hogwarts."

"Next year bud," Harry said while looking down at him.

Daniel folded his arms and glared at his older sister from behind his messy dark brown hair as he said, "I'm smarter then Mi is." Ron let out a deep chuckle at this.

Harmony glared mockingly at her younger brother before pulling him into a hug, "Don't worry, I'll tell you everything. Hey RJ!"

A young red head walked up behind Ron and watched the scene with amusement. Ronald Joseph Weasley stared at Harmony for a moment before saying, "Hi Harmony."

"RJ," his mother said suddenly. "You have a spot on your nose."

His face heated up and he said, "Leave it mom!"

"The spot's going to get bigger," a little blond girl said. "And take over your mind."

RJ stared at her for a moment before saying, "Sola Ginerva Weasley, you really are mental."

"Be nice," Luna Weasley said offhandedly as she came and stood by Ron. "Hello Harry, Hermione." Both of them replied to her with wide smiles.

The woman that was attempting to clean RJ's nose, Lavender Brown, stared up at Luna for a moment before straightening herself and saying, "Hello Luna, everything's going fine with the Quibbler?"

"Oh yes," Luna said with a smile. "But RJ lost control of one of his bludgers and broke one of my printers. It's quite alright though."

"Really now?" Lavender said while looking at her son.

Harry smiled at the interaction between the two women, and how RJ's face turned bright red at his mother's stare.****

Once in every lifetime,  
_**If you do believe,  
**__**Man can move a mountain  
**__**Change the course of history  
**__**How far we've come  
**__**So far from home**_

After the war had ended Ron had 'reunited' with Lavender, who wasn't nearly as insufferable as she had been in sixth year, and started a long term relationship with her. That relationship had ended up badly, but luckily their son, RJ Weasley, wasn't introduced to the arguing they had done. After that Ron had started dating, and soon married Luna Lovegood. They had a daughter, who was currently six-years-old, named Sola Ginerva Weasley. Luna had gone on to inherit the Quibbler from her father, and she and Ron both worked for it. Originally Ron was a Keeper for the Chudley Cannons but he had retired from the sport for the mean time.

RJ looked like his father, with fiery red hair, but he had his mother's light hazel eyes. There always seemed to be a smile on his face, and he enjoyed Quidditch as much as his father did. Unlike Ron, he seemed to have fewer problems with jealousy, although he could be 'a right little prat' at times, as the Potter children put it.

Sola Weasley was a different character all together. With her mother's dirty-blond hair and her father's bright blue eyes, she was an adorable little girl through and through. She had taken Luna's interest in odd animals, and enjoyed hearing stories about different creatures from around the world.

The Weasley family seemed to flourish after the fall of Voldemort. The first ones to provide grandchildren was, unsurprisingly, Bill and Fleur Weasley, who now had three children named William, Amara and Audrey. William was in his fourth year at Hogwarts, Amara was in second year, and Audrey was only starting school this year.

1998 had jokingly been dubbed "the Year of the Weasleys" by everyone who knew the family. That year there were four grandchildren born, and Hogwarts definitely hadn't known what hit them when they received all those children. They were all in third year now, and were quite a handful.

That year Fred and George both had children. Fred had surprised everyone, even his twin, when he announced that he was seeing Katie Bell, not Angelina Johnson like everyone thought he was. They had the first girls of the new Weasley generation, and named them Christy and Jennifer. Both had fiery red hair and their personalities were quite similar to Fred's. If that wasn't bad enough, George and his wife Alison also had twins the same year, on the same day to be specific. Unlike his twin, George had sons instead of daughters, and christened them Darren and Jonathan. The four of them, were constantly seen together, causing mischief and mayhem wherever they went. It was just like having the original Weasley twins at Hogwarts, except with double the trouble.

Percy still didn't talk to his family, something that Molly was quite angry about, and everyone had been surprised and confused to hear that Penelope Clearwater had married him, and that they had a son named Bernard who would be attending Hogwarts the next year. When Ron had heard he had spent his night praying that the kid was nothing like Percy, but his mother wasn't much better anyway.

Harry smiled at the large family of red heads. His biological family wasn't big compared to theirs, but he was content with his wife and his three children. The Potter kids were all their own people and none were affected by their father's every-lasting fame.

Harmony looked astonishingly like Hermione, In fact she was a perfect carbon copy of her in looks, aside from the fact that her hair color was raven black and her eyes were emerald green. Although Harmony looked like her mother, her personality reminded everyone strongly of her father's. The young girl absolutely loved Quidditch, and enjoyed playing as a seeker. She wasn't overly intelligent like her mother, but she did well enough on her own, and she had the same problem with danger that Harry did. It seemed to follow her wherever she went. No one was quite sure why, but when Harmony was born she had the oddest birthmark that looked very much like a scar…the same scar that still adorned Harry's forehead to that day. Hidden by her bangs, Harmony too had a lightning bolt scar on her forehead, but one that didn't represent as much pain and suffering as Harry's did.

Daniel, on the other hand, looked like his fathered with dark brown hair. He wasn't nearly as driven by books as Hermione was, but he did enjoy reading and he was very intelligent. Harry would sometimes joke that Daniel should be doing his job, but, of course, the middle Potter proved to be smart enough to know his father was joking. He would sometimes go out and throw a Quaffle around with his siblings, and he was fairly good at it, but he hadn't inherited the Potter interest in Quidditch. Unlike his mother had been, however, he was much more open and social, but that was from growing up with his father as a celebrity and two siblings.

Sirius was the youngest of the Potters. He had his mother's brown eyes and curly hair, but it was the same raven black as his fathers; he also strongly resembled his father, but there was a twinkle of mischief that could have only come from his grandfather. Sirius was a trouble maker, and he always seemed to know things were going to happen before they did. This forced both his parents to believe that, at least in part, he was a seer or some sort. The youngest Potter loved spending time with his namesake, grandpa Padfoot, who in turn gave the adventure seeking boy many ideas for pranks. Sirius also took a liking to his 'uncles' Fred and George.

Harry smiled at the three children as they spoke to each other in rapid voices, before turning his eyes to his two best friends. They had all grown up, but still, as he looked at Ron and Hermione he could see the same people that had been there at the end of the war, standing on either side of him as they watched his parent's house burn.

_**Trust in yourself you've been chosen  
**__**Become your destiny  
**__**Lead and they will follow your  
**__**Your truth will set you free**_

He forced those thoughts out of his mind and started looking around the platform, when he saw Draco Malfoy a few train cars down from where they stood. The blond man looked over at him and grinned before turning back to his only son, Xander Malfoy. After he had sided with them Harry and Draco had called a truce, and slowly (very slowly) they became friends, even after years of rivalry, unfortunately Harmony and Xander proved to have the same competitive streak in them that their father's had and they didn't get along very well. Looking over at the woman beside Draco he smiled at Ebony Malfoy, one time known as Ebony Moon. It had been a shock to learn that they had been in a relationship for a very long time, but had kept it hidden. They had married almost right out of school. He went on to repeat his seventh year at school, and surprisingly became an Auror. Ebony started working in the Ministry of Magic in the Magical Creatures Department.

While looking around Harry half expected to see the faces of his childhood friends smiling at him, this proved to be only a wish though. Many of the original members of the DA had died in the final battle, as had many more innocent students and people from the ministry, the Order, Beauxbaton and Durmstrang. None of those people were ever forgotten though, because, every year at the anniversary of Voldemort's defeat, the lake would magically fill with lights, like it had when they had pushed the candles out. No one could explain why, or how this happened, all they knew was that it did. Controlled magic, such as actual spells and wands were slowly becoming obsolete and useless, but many people were still in denial about it.

"You two!" Molly Weasley yelled at the red haired twins who were walking towards the Hogwarts express, breaking Harry out of his thoughts. "Behave and I don't want to hear of any letters this year!"

"Us? Not behaving?"

"Now really, what do you think we are?"

"If you were animagi you'd both probably be baboons," a red haired girl said as she slide up next to them.

"Definitely," an identical girl said as she appeared on the other side of the male twins.

Molly's sharp eyes turned to a younger boy and with a sigh she said, "Ronald, there's a spot on your nose." She reached forward to try and get it off but he batted her hand away.

"You _do_ have a spot on your nose," Sola said suddenly to her other brother. "And I still say it's going to take over your brain."

"Shut it," he growled at her, well aware that he own mother had been poking at it a few moments earlier.

"Ronald Joseph Weasley," Molly growled at him. "Apologies to your sister and don't let me hear such sauce come out of that mouth again or I'll clean it out with soap."

"She will too," Ron said to his son. "She did it to me when I was your age."

The eleven-year-old smiled weakly and said, "Yeah, sorry Sola."

She shrugged and didn't seem to care about his apology. Sola was certainly her mother's daughter.

Harry chuckled at them before turning to the train, which let out a bellowing sound.

"It's time to go guys," Hermione said with a shaky voice as she ushered her daughter towards the entrance. "Now be good, and make sure to write every day and –"

"Dad gave me one of the two way mirrors mum," Harmony said while staring at her mother. "I'll call you every night I can, ok?"

Hermione didn't let her tears fall, but Harry could see them in her eyes as she hugged the young girl tightly.

Harmony faced her father, who smiled at her and said, "You're a Potter, you're going to get in trouble, but don't go looking for it, ok? Don't try to hex Xander, and just do your best."

"I'll definitely pass Defense," she said confidently while looking at him with wide, innocent eyes.

"Oh no, don't think just because you're my kid that I'm going to give you a better mark," Harry said with a laugh. Harry had been the youngest teacher ever to be accepted into Hogwarts, the year after Harmony was born. He taught Defense Against the Dark Arts, and only last year had become the Head of Gryffindor. After Voldemort's death, the curse on the Defense job seemed to vanish.

_**It's in your heart it's in your soul  
**__**Don't be scared…keep believing  
**__**I know you know…deep inside  
**__**That your time has come  
**_

"Fine," she said with a sigh as she climbed in the door. "I'll see you later dad! Bye mum! Sirius, Daniel…stay out of my room!" Suddenly her eyes caught movement down the hall from her and she said, "Hey, there's Wood…I wonder if I can try talking him into letting a first year on the team…"

"You get on that," Harry said with a laugh. Harmony was about to walk down the corridor of the train before they heard a yell.

"Wait!"

Turning around Harry saw Sirius Black quickly making his way towards them. He finally reached them and said, "You didn't expect to leave without saying goodbye, did you?"

"Of course not Grandpa Padfoot," she said with a laugh as she moved to the door and threw her arms around his neck. "I'll talk to you through the mirror too."

"You had better, or I'll teach Sirius ways of getting in your room without getting caught," the old man joked with her.

Harmony laughed and turned around when RJ yelled, "Train's going to leave in a minute, we have a compartment here."

"Bye!" she said quickly before turning and walking down the corridor of the train.

"Where's Remus and Tonks?" Harry asked Sirius as he watched his daughter sit in the compartment through the window. She turned to him and waved.

"Oh, with Jason," Sirius said. "He hasn't been feeling very good lately." After Godric's Hallow had been burned, Remus and Tonks went on another hunt, this time for information on Jason Prewett, Sarah's son. Much to everyone's surprise, and delight, they found him after about a year of looking. He was a werewolf, but he was a decent and polite man who had been shocked, and happy to find out about the past. He was often sick though, so he usually didn't come to things like this.

Harry turned to Hermione with a huge smile on his face. He leaned into her and kissed her before staring at her, still smiling. They watched the train as it pulled away and headed towards Hogwarts, bringing the next generation with it.

"What?" she asked him, but not without returning her own loving smile.

"There is a Wood as captain of the Qudditch team, and a Potter who's just as good a seeker as her dad. If that's not enough, there is a Potter, a Weasley and a Malfoy in the same year, plus many more Weasleys. I bet Hogwarts is in for the most interesting year it's had in thirteen years!"

Hermione laughed and said, "Wait until those two start going as well."

_**Once in every lifetime,  
**__**If you do believe,  
**__**Man can move a mountain  
**__**Change the course of history  
**__**How far we've come  
**__**So far from home**_

"Poor McGonagall will be in tears," Harry said with a grin. "And I'll be sitting back at my desk laughing about it. Now boys, before dad goes to work, are you sure that you'll be good for Grandpa Padfoot?"

Daniel and Sirius Potter gave their father innocent green and brown stares respectively. "Of course we'll be good!"

"They're going to give him hell." Hermione muttered.

"I'm sure he'll counting down the minutes until you come to pick them up."

"I'm standing right here," Sirius said with a laugh before saying to the boys. "Who wants ice cream?"

Daniel and Sirius both whooped as they ran over and waited by the entrance to the muggle world. Harry waved to Luna as she took her daughter's hand and left to wait for her husband on the other side.

"Hey guys," Ron said as he came up to them and the three walked together towards the gate to the muggle world. They spoke of many things, mostly of their jobs, their lives, and their children, but no one brought up their past. There was no need to. Despite all of the things that had changed, all the things that had happened to them, some things never changed.

_**Once in every lifetime,  
**__**If you do believe,  
**__**Man can move a mountain,  
**__**Change the course of history.  
**__**How far we've come,  
**__**So far from home. **_

If anyone watched the three walk towards the muggle world together they would have thought one thing, despite being adults with their children gone off to have their own adventures, they were still the same eleven year olds that met twenty years ago on the train to Hogwarts. They were still the oddly tall, temperamental boy, the bushy haired know-it-all, and the boy who wanted to be normal, and not be known for his scar.

**_The End_**


End file.
